Why Bognor is one of the best panto venues in the country

There won’t be a panto at the Regis Centre in 2023. The venue shuts for its massive revamp in the spring and it’s not yet known when it will reopen – though a 2023 panto has already been ruled out. For Bev, that’s all the more reason to make 2022 all the more special. This year the show is Beauty and the Beast running from Wednesday, December 7-Sunday, January 1 (tickets on alexandratheatre.co.uk).

“We were saying in the car how many times have we done the panto in Bognor Regis and really I just don't know. It must be 12 or 13 times. The years just seem to have disappeared but I just love that connection that we have with the venue. I just love it down there. It's such a great theatre. We know everyone there and everybody knows us and they know how we operate and there's just something a little bit old-fashioned that we like. The difference is that it is run by people that care. You can go to some other theatres and they're just not particularly bothered but at the Regis Centre you really know that it's important to them and that's lovely. And the audiences in Bognor are just fantastic. And the venue is just perfect for panto. It’s like walking inside your front room. Panto is all about the interaction. My dame can go right down into the audience and so can the comic and you can really feel the warmth of that audience. It's just lovely. And you have also got the fantastic volunteers who are also so much about the warmth of the place and the spirit of the place.

“Last year was just so great to be back. Everybody had struggled during the lockdowns and we just came back with a vengeance, and we're doing really nice business now. I think the point is that we manage to do panto at a sensible price. You can go to other places and pay a lot more but I really think that we offer something that is completely comparable. We spent a lot of time and money and effort on this and we're going to make it a really great show. I often wonder whether it matters which panto we do and I think that if you ask someone which panto we did last year they will say ‘Oh, there was a dame in it and there was a comic and we shouted out a lot!’ so maybe in that sense it doesn't really matter but we never repeat from one year to the next. It is basically a five-year rotation that we have so that if you come one year aged seven the next time we're back with the same panto you'll be 12 and you'll be too cool for panto! But we make it different every time. I've completely rewritten Beauty and the Beast for this year. It's a whole new modern version. With the technology available you can use more technology that the children will relate to. We've got a lot more graphics to make it work this year as well, but the main difference is that it is mostly set in Gaston’s karaoke bar and with the karaoke it means that when we've got songs in the show, the lyrics can come up.”