Eat your heart out I'm on TV at Christmas
10:47am Friday 25th November 2011 in Colin Baker By Colin Baker
And before the fireworks have faded from the sky, here we are at panto time again. While Lesley Joseph, who was at drama school with me aeons ago, was doing the honours turning the lights on in Wycombe, I was doing precisely the same thing in Mansfield in Derbyshire, where I am terrifying small children this Christmas.
Not that that is what she is doing. I suspect that she is playing a more sympathetic role than I am. I am reprising the role of Fleshcreep which I played in Malvern two years ago – the villainous henchman of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, necessitated by the impracticalities of having the giant appear before the plot absolutely demands it!
I was a little more careful this year in my utterances, bearing in mind that when I turned on Cromer’s lights a few years ago I got into terrible trouble with the burghers of Blackpool whose magnificent display I pretended was inferior to the modest offering in Cromer. It never pays to underestimate the potency of civic pride.
Suffice it to say that Mansfield, a town with which I was hitherto unfamiliar, put on a fine evening and, as I suspect was probably the case in Wycombe, the citizens turned up in their thousands to celebrate for once in these austere times.
I am normally reticent to acknowledge the existence of Christmas until December but I think everyone needs a little relief from the relentless gloom that seems to be pervading the world at the moment, so the early onset of Yuletide jollity is for once very welcome.
I have been experiencing it in another way this week too. I have been participating in Come Dine with Me which was a most entertaining and interesting experience. I was persuaded to do it by my family and my agent – all of whom clearly thought I was being too indolent.
As someone who hasn’t cooked anything other than beans on toast and various combinations of breakfast for four decades, it came as somewhat of a shock, but in the event was great fun. I met some fascinating people that I can’t name and ate some great dinners that I can’t describe. The programme will be aired on Channel 4 from Boxing Day onwards if you are curious as to who was in it, what they cooked and which charity ultimately benefited, tune in and have a laugh at my expense.
