A kids TV presenter dressed as a scarecrow walked up a grassy hill, not a yellow brick road, with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Toto the dog this week.

Dave Benson Phillips is best known for helping kids to dunk their parents in gunge on TV game show Get Your Own Back and hanging out with puppets on children’s TV programme Playdays.

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But on Monday Benson Phillips, with a mop of straw poking out from under his hat, went to Mounthill Gardens, Epsom, with the cast from this year’s panto the Wizard of Oz.

While walking there from the Epsom Playhouse, he tells VIBE: "I’m really looking forward to the prospect of being in this show. I get lines and dance routines and I get to wear straw."

The cast members, including wicked and good witches, lined up for the photo shoot in the sunshine while Toto scampered around their feet.

Benson Phillips jokes that he used to have a "pathological fear of dogs" and he had hoped that an automated dog would be used in the production.

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He says he went to a class to overcome his fear and ironically one of the other participants had a fear of black people. He told them: "Your therapy starts now".

He adds: "Everyone had to face their fear and I patted this Labrador and it had enough and bit me. I got a refund and everything."

Benson Phillips, who lives in Surrey, describes Epsom as one of his old "haunts" and reminisces about window shopping at Lester Bowden in the town centre.

He says: "Can anybody who knows me, if they still have my number, get in touch? A lot of this area was where I entertained at children’s parties.

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"If these people have got kids, it would be nice to meet up with them. This is the career you helped to spawn. If anybody knows me, say hi, keep in touch."

Jamie Bannerman, in a fluffy Lion costume, and his friend Phil Amato, smeared in silver face paint, admitted they were getting hot in the sunshine. Both of them have performed at the Playhouse before.

Amato, who played the role of PC Ping Pong in Aladdin in 2009, says: "It was where it all started for me. I’m really happy to be back."

The Epsom Guardian supports the annual Christmas pantomine at the Epsom Playhouse.

The Wizard of Oz

From Saturday December 13 to Sunday January 4

Epsom Playhouse, Ashley Avenue, Epsom

www.epsomplayhouse.co.uk

01372 742555

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