Panto time will soon be upon us. Weymouth Pavilion has launched this year's panto Dick Whittington, which will be enchanting audiences from December 15. JOANNA DAVIS finds out more.

A MAGICAL fairy and gold-paved streets will dazzle an audience at this year's Weymouth Pavilion pantomime.

The cast of Dick Whittington have launched this year's Christmas pantomime - a rags-to-riches story telling the tale of a boy from Gloucester who travels all the way to London to make his fortune, believing that the streets there are paved with gold. But in actual fact, the streets are covered in rats. It’ll be up to Dick and his funny feline friend to save the day and overthrow the Mistress of Misery…the Duchess of the Drains…the almighty villain – Queen Rat!

Last year's panto, Sleeping Beauty, broke records - selling more tickets than any other Weymouth panto.

The brains behind it, Made-to-Measure Pantomimes, are behind this brand new production of Dick Whittington.

Look out for a messy scene, known as the 'slosh scene' and a rocking ship’s galley which tilts from side to side throughout the scene.

Local audiences will notice some familiar faces in this year’s production as several of the cast return from previous popular pantomimes at the Pavilion!

Weymouth’s favourite dame, Lee Redwood, has been a mainstay of Weymouth's pantos over the past few years. He returns to the venue for his sixth Christmas pantomime in the town, playing the hilarious Sarah The Cook. Lee, who is also the panto's producer and director, said the decision to do Dick Whittington this year was relatively straightforward: “We were thinking about doing Peter Pan but decided it would be too similar to Pirates of the Pavilion because there's a sequence when they're on a ship.

"It's important to me to keep doing different things. Dick Whittington has an element of a ship in it but we've increased the stuff in it that is much more about London.

“This will be the most ambitious panto we've done to date. There's going to be a lot going on and various things that have to happen at certain times so it's all very precise. We try to raise the bar each year.”

The word on the cobbles is that Lee's attempting to beat last year’s record of 16 costume changes per show.

He said: “My character has got a lot of baking style costumes she will be wearing and there's going to be a lot of custard pies adding to the fun."

And the audience should prepare themselves for some traditional panto humour, Lee says.

“We've got a scene where the captain turns up and there's an Irishman and a Welshman turns up and no-one can understand each other.”

Lee revealed that next year's Weymouth panto will be a return to Cinderella.

Once again, Lee will be joined onstage by Gwynfryn West who plays Sarah's son Idle Jack. Dick Whittington marks Gwynfryn’s fourth pantomime in Weymouth.

Gwyn said: “Snow White was my first panto and I'm really looking forward to this one. Idle Jack is a very comic character, he's a silly boy really. He means well and tries to help but he tends to get everything wrong!"

Gywn, who hails from west Wales, has now settled in Weymouth. He said: “I really love the town and I love the people and I now live here with my fiancee."

As an 11-year-old youngster Gwyn made his first appearance in panto and has been working in theatre for around 20 years.

He said: “I've done a lot of children's theatre and pretty much anything under the sun. Panto time has always been my favourite time of year and it's lovely to come back to Weymouth from wherever I've been working and do this.

“I really look forward to engaging with the audience and having the connection with the children. There's also the little wink wink jokes for the adults that go over the children's heads. I'm looking forward to the rocking ship we're going to have.

“For me the highlight is always just having fun on stage with the cast members. It very much feels like a family. We're only together for five weeks and we always make the most of it.

“My family from Wales always come to see it and sometimes it's the only time I get to see them as I'm so busy for the rest of the year."

Former Weymouth musical theatre group member Lewis Asquith, 26, plays the role of Dick. He previously appeared in the touring production of the West End's Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat as the Butler, which came to Weymouth Pavilion.

He said: “I grew up in Weymouth and started off doing theatre at All Saints School. It's great to be back, the last time I was here was two years ago doing Joseph and it was amazing to come home after working away.”

After school Lewis attended Weymouth College and then Trinity College in London and graduated from his musical theatre course four years ago. Coming home to take part in Weymouth's Christmas pantomime is a dream come true for Lewis.

“It was amazing when I found out I'd got the part of Dick. I've wanted to do it for a couple of years, it's such a good part for me.

“There's going to be a wonderful pirate ship set. I'm looking forward to every part of it, there's a lot of comedy in it and it's got a good reputation for being a really fun panto. I think it will be especially good to sing along with Karla.”

Also in the cast are Karla Harvey as Alice Fitzwarren, Yvonne Patterson as the evil Queen Rat, who plans to take over London and cheeky chappy Chay Lewandowski as Tommy the Cat and Alan McLaren playing multiple roles in the show including Alderman Fitzwarren, Captain Birdtable and The Sultan Of Morocco.

Aimi Percival, 32, joins the cast as the magical Fairy Bowbells.

“My costume will be very sparkly and glittery which I'm really excited about.”

Aimi is a singer and actress from Hertfordshire. She has toured theatres with her tribute show to Julie Andrews and has even taken the show abroad.

She said: “So many people seem to be massive fans of either The Sound of Music or Mary Poppins. I'm very much into singing and recording my own compositions. I'm hoping to do lots more with my music in the future.”

Aimi is looking forward to spending Christmas in the Dorset area.

“I've been to see Lee's pantos before and I'm really excited to be a part of it. I've got family who live in Bournemouth so it will be lovely to see them when I'm here.”

*Dick Whittington is at Weymouth Pavilion from December 15 to January 5. There will be a relaxed performance on Thursday December 20 at 5pm. Contact the box office for tickets.

WHY ARE WEYMOUTH'S PANTOS SO SUCCESSFUL?

WEYMOUTH pantos are now known for their affordability factor – big names are eschewed in favour of hard-working up and coming theatre professionals, which helps keep the ticket prices down.

Director and producer Lee said: “Now we seem to be getting people coming from all over the county and of course there are a lot of people visiting Weymouth over Christmas and New Year and they seem to make a point of coming to see the panto.

“In big venues there's still a tendency to put people from reality television in pantos and sometimes these people can't even act. One year I saw someone from Big Brother in a panto and they didn't seem to know what they were doing.

“We've set up our panto so we don't need a celebrity and it helps keep ticket prices down.

“But now with panto we are seeing some really good actors wanting to be involved. Robert Lindsay will be in the panto in Richmond this year. It's good that they are attracting more people who can really act because for many children it's the first time they've been to the theatre and you want to get them as a theatre audience for life.”