This week Martin talks to three members of the UK Pantomime Association - Simon Sladen, Samuel Munday-Webb and Nick Humby. 

Founded in 2021 the UK Pantomime Association is a charity with the aim of exploring, sharing and celebrating pantomime. They ardently believe in the positive promotion of pantomime and inspiring and encouraging others to engage with the genre.

In addition they hold the annual pantomime awards each April to celebrate the industry at Trafalgar Theatre in the West End.

On the podcast learn more about the Association, their motivation, practices and aims as well as the impending award ceremony.

This week sees Martin catching up with Steve and Sarah to see what is happening at Imagine during March. 

 He talks to Sarah about the huge workload she and the accounts team have in reconciling accounts for the end of the financial year and how this affects budgeting for the 2023 season. Also under discussion are the current challenges faced by both the industry and the general public by the rising costs and any potential strategies that may arise as a result.

 The Imagine team also talk to Martin about their delight at the Imagine shows receiving 12 nominations for the UK Pantomime Association Awards this year.

Something different for the ‘Just Imagine’ podcast series, Martin sits down with Imagine’s Managing Director Steve Boden, and our Artistic Director and renowned pantomime writer Eric Potts to talk about the pantomime Cinderella. 

 This is the first of several ‘special’ podcast episodes, spread over the next 2 years, where we work through the popular pantomime titles in turn, examining them in more depth by talking through the title’s roots, the background story, the unique elements of the title, things to consider such as set, costume, scripting, music, box office popularity etc. They then also consider how Cinderella might move forwards into the future… 

This week Martin interviews the incredible Nigel Ellacott, pantomime dame extraordinaire and the brains behind the encyclopaedic pantomime website www.itsbehindyou.com. Join them both in this fascinating walk-through pantomime over the years. Listening to Nigel talk, you’ll soon understand why the UK Pantomime Association chose him as the recipient of their 2022 award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of pantomime.

This week Martin catches up with Steve and Sarah and finds, contrary to popular belief, they are not able to put their feet up now the panto season has finished and have a well-earned rest. Join him as he talks to them about how the 2022 panto season went, how it was to have six brand new venues for 2022, their pride at having almost half a million people watch an Imagine pantomime and why the team are still so busy even though all of the Imagine pantomimes have closed.

Vernon Kay has done almost everything from playing American football, to modelling, radio and TV presenting, to taking part in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, but until this year one thing he had never done was appear in a panto. Now he is getting rave reviews as Dandini in Cinderella in Wycombe and he joins us for our festive special podcast which also features Christmas messages and festive jokes from the team at Imagine.

From falling in love with ballroom dancing and sequins as a youngster to developing a passion for drama and musical theatre through school, Christian Patterson has become a well-respected performer, writer and director.

Christian talks to Martin about his extensive career, his influences and his love of the panto genre.

Martin visits Imagine HQ to see exactly what happens when the company is in the midst of the panto season.

The team are all very busy with panto season just around the corner. Equipment is being tested, final props such as time machines are being created, lots of things are being glittered, final costume preparations are underway and being packed in trundles and wigs are being coiffured. 

Join Martin for this fascinating look into exactly what it is like during the height of the season for a pantomime producer.

Graeme is a performer, choreographer, casting associate and author and this week he joins Martin on the podcast to talk about his varied career and how having worked in a huge variety of genres has helped his career to develop. He has worked with Imagine Theatre for a number of years and this year will be choreographing Aladdin at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe.

To celebrate our 40th episode we are taking a look back over some of our previous episodes to discover some of our guests first experiences of panto, favourite panto titles and why panto is so special to them as well as their most memorable moments of something going wrong!