Is there any job in acting that makes quite as many demands upon the individual as that of a pantomime performer ? Probably not. While the rest of us are busy with pre-Christmas preparations, with school and work and present-buying, the panto star is almost certainly on a stage somewhere, hoofing it up in full costume before an audience of children in the grip of a manic sugar rush.

“Twelve shows a week, typically, sometimes more,” says Christopher Biggins , perhaps our most enduring panto icon – and who’s appearing this year in Robin Hood in Birmingham. “The average season is six or seven weeks, but the longest I’ve done was three months. Each show, we had to sing It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas . We were still singing it at Easter.”

It sounds utterly exhausting, I t

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