Elaine C Smith loves doing panto in Aberdeen – even if she has to put on an accent!

WHEN Elaine C Smith first headed north to perform in panto, she wasn’t sure if the audience would accept her.

Now, starring in her seventh Aberdeen panto, the city feels like a second home.

“I wasn’t sure how an Aberdeen audience would take a Weegie, but the key is always to remember where you are,” she smiled.

“I was only coming here for one year, but here I am in my seventh and the audience has grown to love me doing a very bad Aberdeen accent!

“Gerard Kelly always said that panto in Scotland was a celebration of the local culture, so it’s important to have a sense of place.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have a laugh at the First Minister or I’m A Celebrity or whatever’s happening this year it’s Star Wars and I come out as Princess Leia but people in Aberdeen don’t want to hear gags about Glasgow or Edinburgh.”

This year’s panto at His Majesty’s is Peter Pan and she stars alongside Alan McHugh and Jordan Young again.

“I play the Magical Mermaid, or Madge as I call her, who is of course the most integral part of Peter Pan,” she laughed.

“I’m a woman headlining and I’m not going to play the Dame, so it’s about how you can write up the character and here the mermaid becomes the storyteller.

“Peter Pan is quite a dark story, which we have to be loyal to, but we also keep it light and topical.”

After spending so many years in panto in Glasgow, where there are several big shows competing for audiences, Elaine likes the change in Aberdeen.

“There’s just one big theatre here, so you get a real sense that it belongs to the city and everyone seems to come out for it.

“You could be sitting in the same row as Alex Salmond, who brings his staff along, or a cleaner from up the road.

“It’s a real unifying thing, unlike lots of other theatre.

“I’m part of the city for a couple of months each year and I really like that.

“You’ll see me running around the shops with my face all glitter, buying Christmas presents.

“I do go down the road for Christmas Day, though.

“I have a car and driver laid on and I get home just after midnight on Christmas Eve and then I’m picked up again on Boxing Day at 9.30am and I’m on stage at 2pm.

“Sometimes we spend New Year in Aberdeen and we also have a place in Dunkeld where we go.”

Elaine was going to take a sabbatical from panto this year due to her hectic schedule, but in the end she couldn’t walk away.

“I decided to do it because I have such a wonderful time and I really feel we’ve built something up here, so it wasn’t the right time to take it off.”

Coming up next for the 57-year-old is the role of Miss Hannigan in a stage version of Annie, coming to Glasgow in February and then Edinburgh and Aberdeen in May.

“I’ve always wanted to play the role,” she explained.

“In another life I was a school teacher in Firrhill High in Edinburgh and I used to take the pupils to London every year to see a few shows.

“I took them to see Annie, where Sheila Hancock was playing Miss Hannigan, and I remember really enjoying it.

“And then I took my own kids to see Paul O’Grady in the role, so I’m really looking forward to playing such a baddie.”

As well as that, Elaine has two TV shows coming up in the spring the second series of Burdz Eye View on STV and Two Doors Down, which has been picked up by the BBC network following a Hogmanay pilot two years ago.

“We made Burdz Eye View for two bags of chips and a Kit Kat, yet three times out of the six weeks of the first series we beat EastEnders.

“This series we go to Nairn, Ayr, Arran, the East Neuk, Largs and Aviemore.

“I’ve also just finished Two Doors Down with Alex Norton.

“It’s been a long time since I wanted to be in a sitcom and I’ve turned down a lot, because I have to choose well, having been in one of the most beloved in Rab C.

“I absolutely love this and it has some of the funniest lines I’ve had the pleasure to say in a long time.”Hoff the Hook – Glasgow panto star David Hasselhoff reveals his ten life lessons – click here to read more