Michael J Batchelor makes it nine pantos in Crawley

This year, playing his usual dame role, he is Mrs Smee in The All New Adventures Of Peter Pan (Friday, December 9-Monday, January 2). Tickets are available at hawth.co.uk or by calling The Hawth box office (10am-4pm, Monday to Friday) on 01293 553636.

“Next year is the big ten years in Crawley for me. I don't know how I get away with it! But I love coming here and I just love the fact that now the audience already know you. You walk out and it's like walking out into a room full of friends. That's not to say that you don't have to try or you don't have to perform but already having the audience on your side the moment you come out really does help in terms of nerves and in terms of confidence.”

And yes, nerves and confidence really do come into it still: “I think if you are ever really not nervous at all about something then it's because you don't really care. I think even if it is just at the beginning of the run, you should be a bit nervous especially when it’s new people and a n ew script and a new show. And actually I do think sometimes you can put more pressure on yourself when you are a regular somewhere because they know you and you've got to make sure you're just as good as last year and even better! And also it's the whole thing with me making and designing my own costumes. You are always thinking ‘Are these good just as good as last year? Are they better?”

“But I just love panto and I'm absolutely passionate about being the dame. I love the fact that panto is something that people of all ages can come together and enjoy, from the very young to the very elderly. There is something for everybody in the show. You've got the colour and the songs and the dance and you've got a little bit of innuendo for the adults. It is very traditional. It is very British. When I get messages from people saying then I have become like a mainstay of their Christmases, I love it. They say that it doesn't feel like Christmas if they haven't seen me in a frock. So yes there's pressure there but it's also so lovely that they take you to their heart in that way.

“Professionally I've been a dame for 22 or 23 years. My first dame was 21 and I just love it. I just love being so loud and outrageous. And I love the different costumes and I also just love the fact that the audience love you and you are entertaining them. I'm an only child and I think I've got only-child syndrome. I am all ‘I am funny! Look at me! Pay me some attention!’

“At first when I was younger I did play a lot of ugly sisters but when you get older you can be more motherly and you can play the dame properly, and it’s only really in the last ten years of my career I've really started playing the dame. It's that warmth and that the motherliness that you want and also that cheekiness. You have got to understand that it is innuendo. You should always be cheeky but you should never ever get right to the line or cross the line. It should be a bit naughty and a bit silly but you've got to understand how far you can go and I think that comes with experience.”

Also it comes with the knowledge of changing perceptions of what is and what isn't acceptable: “A lot of different gags now perhaps people will realise that they shouldn't have been saying some years ago but the way I play it it's not the kind of thing that I would say anyway.”