Paignton’s Panto King: Iain Douglas celebrates 30 years at the Palace Theatre

If someone created pantomime in human form, it might be something like Iain Douglas.

Bright, fizzing, funny with more than a slight hint of naughtiness, Iain exudes energy and fun. This is hardly surprising as he has been involved with Paignton Pantomime Productions since 1980, and this December celebrates his 30th year directing. 

This is quite an achievement, but these decades of experience are evident to anyone who attends the pantomimes at the Palace Theatre, Paignton. They are not only always of an exceptional standard, but they also manage to keep ticket prices comparatively low, meaning they almost always sell out. 

When I meet with Iain to ask his secrets, he is remarkably modest. 

However, it is clear he lives and breathes panto and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the many years he’s been involved and is able to tell me things off the top of his head about casts or productions from decades ago. 

In fact, when I ask his collaborator, the choreographer Elaine Johnson, what Iain’s most irritating quality is, she replies that he is ‘the oracle of all dates and can tell you off the top of his head who appeared in what show, in what year’. 

She also adds that he is ‘very annoying turning up at my dance rehearsals chatting to people on the sidelines and forgetting how loud he is, when he’s right next to me and shouting’. 

The pair run very distinct roles with the pantomimes, with Elaine being in charge of all the musical numbers with both junior and senior dancers and Iain working separately with the principal actors to ensure all the bits in between the songs are as funny and effective as possible. 

Elaine herself has been involved for 26 years, and, when asked, she says that Iain’s best quality is that ‘he mainly leaves me to my own devices to just get on with what I want to do’ 

Others are more gushing. Gary Abraham, who regularly appears as Dame, says: “He’s such a great director because he makes rehearsals fun. I love working with him because he trusts what I do and gives me free licence but offers sensible good advice.”

Clive Simmons, who has worked with Paignton Panto since 1979, told me: “Working with Iain is an absolute pleasure because he’s open to new ideas and always sets us unusual challenges every year.”

In recent years these have included a life-size elephant and last year an animated dragon. Iain tells me to expect similar surprises this year for their production of Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates. 

This, apparently, is a big departure for them, having rotated around five to six classic better-known pantomimes such as Cinderella and Aladdin over the years. It has 14 principal characters and takes place in Brazil, then at sea and then on, of course, a desert island. It costs around £70,000 to put on the show and they need to sell 94 per cent of tickets to make money – luckily, they almost always do that. 

Iain says: "Why Iain Douglas remains the beating heart of Paignton Pantomime Productions after 30 years at the helm‘It’s risky, but it means we can keep our ticket prices low and allow panto to be accessible to all. They say that panto is the gateway drug to all other theatre. Sixty per cent of our audience are adults though, and people come back each year, because they know what to expect and that is the key. 

“If I’ve learnt anything it’s that people have expectations and you need to make sure they get what they want. 

“For example, our shows have become well-known for soaking the crowd with water-pistols and throwing out sweets at the start. This is important because you’ve got to allow the audience permission to relax and know they can shout out and join in.

‘When I started directing, we sold 2,800 seats, now it's around 5,000 and we have added more shows, particularly before Christmas when there is great anticipation. 

“There are some things we don’t do – for example we shy away from doing a song sheet as it rarely works. The audience doesn’t always like to sing out loud and sometimes the children can’t sing or even read. But we do like getting kids on stage and richly humiliating them. Audience participation is a winning formula”.

But what has changed over the years? He says: “‘Not a lot to be honest. There are certain things for politically correct reasons we now don’t do. However, our pantos have never been outright rude, but there are, of course, a certain level of jokes which are for the adults but go right over the kids heads and that’s part of the fun.”

Paignton Pantomime Productions are themselves celebrating their 90th anniversary which means Iain has been directing for a third of that time and been involved for 55 years. 

He started out aged 19 playing a comic policeman named either Bamboo or Typhoo (he can’t remember which). Since then, Iain has played comic roles, or Dame, but never the villain. 

When asked about what makes a good Dame, he is very clear that they should not be ‘too feminine, but basically a bloke in a dress’. 

Being both funny and energetic is clearly something that is vital to Iain, both in his own personality but also in the shows he puts on.

He says: “If you ask the cast what my most common words are it would be ‘smile’ and ‘sing out loud’. I really hammer that into new cast members from the first rehearsal. When directing pace is the most important thing of all, too, there should be no gaps and continual sound and something happening.”

Things must go wrong though. ‘“Perhaps my most memorable was when a pantomime cow played by two people lost its bearings and almost fell off the stage,” says Iain.

Iain watched every show and is clearly incredibly dedicated to ensuring each one retains his high standards. He also reveals he is something of a panto addict though, telling me he often goes to as many as ten other pantomimes over the winter. 

So, what is the future for Iain? In February he retires from Wollens the solicitors after nearly 44 years working for them. There certainly seems to be no plans to slow down though. Iain also directs and sometimes performs in musicals and next summer is at the helm for the Queen musical, We Will Rock You, back at the Palace Theatre.

He says: “‘I hope to carry on with Paignton Panto for a good few more years.”

Robinson Crusoe is running until January 4. For more information and to book tickets visit www.palacetheatrepaignton.co.uk