Patrick Monahan is Worthing's panto baddie once again

He was Hook in Peter Pan a few years ago and returns to play the baddie once again.

“It's funny. Up north they get me to play the goodie, the Buttons-type character but down here I'm always the baddie. In Worthing there's no messing around. It’s like they want the real Pat to come out!”

Patrick was back in Worthing earlier this year with his stand-up show: “And I just can't get enough of Worthing. I absolutely love it. I've never played in a venue that is so friendly and warm and welcoming and it is just hanging over the edge of the sea! It's a great atmosphere and you kind of think that if people laugh too much then the whole of the Pavilion will just tumble into the sea but it just makes a massive difference when everyone is so friendly and so welcoming. I go around the country with my stand-up and it doesn't really matter where you are because it's always about the people but when you come back to Worthing it's lovely just because the people there are so lovely and so giving. And it is a great place to do panto.

“I love panto. I love the fact that it's a team effort and it's great fun and the people you work with are so lovely. When you are on doing stand-up you're on your own but when you do panto you really are part of a family. You spend six weeks together and it feels like you're together all the time. I spend ten or 11 months a year basically on my own with a stand-up show. I don't have a support act. I do everything on my own and I love that and I love chatting to the audience because it feels like the first conversation you've actually had that day because you have been on the motorway or on the train. But panto is a very different feeling because you turn up every day and it's the same people and you know them and you just love chatting with them. But you really, really couldn't do panto 12 months a year!

“But also I love the fact that it's such a traditional thing and it's also such a generational thing. The next generation bring their children along and so you've got the nostalgia from the older people but you've also got the young kids coming in but the really interesting thing and what you get in Worthing is that it's updated and that means that you can inject your own style in it as well.”

But in essence it really does come down to that team effort Patrick talks about: “It's so important that everyone gets on. I think the audience can see whether you actually gel as a cast or not, whether you can make each other laugh and that's the beauty of it when you can. I've known people that haven't got on in the past but I've always been really lucky and I've always loved being part of it.”

The cast and crew are: Marcavia McCarthy – Princess Ariana; Michael Auger – Michael, The Royal Gardener; Katie Pritchard – Fairy Amethyst; Jay Rawlings – Muddles; Patrick Monahan – The Evil Underlord; and Ross Muir – Queen Dorothia.