It’s a double landmark show for EastEnders legend Lorraine Stanley who is promising a deliciously evil Queen Rat in Dick Whittington at the Kings Theatre, Southsea from November 29-December 31.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspaper's Portsmouth
00:06Panto.
00:07At the Pompey Panto at the King's Theatre, Dick Whittington, lovely to speak to Lorraine
00:11Stanley of EastEnders fame.
00:13Now Lorraine, this is doubly important for you, because this is not just your first panto,
00:20this is your first return to Portsmouth, where you were born and brought up.
00:23Exactly.
00:24What does it mean to you to be back on stage?
00:26Oh, it means so much.
00:28Pardon?
00:29What does it mean to you to be back in Portsmouth on stage?
00:32It means so much.
00:33I mean, this is where I was born, this is where I trained as an actor for part of my
00:38training, and all my family still live here, lots of friends, lots of relatives are here,
00:46they can all come and watch me and it's a real proud moment to see a big poster of me
00:51outside the lovely King's Theatre that I've grown up coming to watch shows here, so it's
00:56really, really special.
00:57It's going to be emotional that first night, isn't it?
01:00I think I might cry a bit actually, yeah.
01:03You're not likely, you're the villain, you've got to make people cry.
01:05I know, I'll cry when I come off stage.
01:09Absolutely.
01:10And why the first panto now?
01:14I think, well, you've got to be a known face to do panto, especially in a lead role, so
01:21coming off the back of EastEnders, this is the perfect time, everyone knows Karen Taylor,
01:26I can bring that to the show and exaggerated version of that as well, so yeah.
01:33And you're going to bring plenty of villainy, like, as you were saying, slightly worrying
01:37now that you're going to plumb the deepest, darkest, filthiest depths of your soul to
01:42play this character.
01:43Yes, I mean, she is a sewer rat, no less.
01:47I've got my tail here, and I'm going to slap a few people around the face with it and I'm
01:54going to really get into that character so I can get so many boos.
01:59The bigger the boos, the better I've done my job.
02:03You're going to be chased out of your old hometown, aren't you?
02:05I'm going to be chased out of my hometown, yes, but I'll be back.
02:11That sounds very ominous.
02:12Well, good luck in that first panto.
02:14Thank you so much.
02:15Good luck in that first return to Portsmouth, and lovely to speak to you, look forward to
02:19seeing you on stage.
02:20Lovely to speak to you.
02:22Take care.