0:00:06 > 0:00:10Tonight, we present for your entertainment,
0:00:10 > 0:00:13the most gregarious, the most garrulous,
0:00:13 > 0:00:19the most glorious creature in the history of British theatre.
0:00:19 > 0:00:20Gorgeous!
0:00:20 > 0:00:26150 years old, and in the rudest of health, ladies and gentlemen,
0:00:26 > 0:00:32we give you the primped, the powdered, the most phantasmagorical -
0:00:32 > 0:00:34the pantomime dame!
0:00:34 > 0:00:37What do you think?
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Very attractive woman, if I don't mind saying so myself!
0:00:50 > 0:00:52The history of pantomime is as colourful
0:00:52 > 0:00:56and flamboyant as the dames who eventually took centre stage.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01From John Rich, who made a fortune from pantomime in the 18th century...
0:01:01 > 0:01:02What a showman!
0:01:02 > 0:01:07..to a contemporary and streetwise ugly sister.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10- You know I'm sexy, ain't I? - No!
0:01:11 > 0:01:14But what the earliest and most modern pantomimes
0:01:14 > 0:01:17have in common is a world of delightful disorder.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21It's about misrule. Everything's the wrong way round all of a sudden.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26And at the very centre of it all is the dame.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31She is the queen of misrule,
0:01:31 > 0:01:36and she's been played by the greatest comedians of stage and screen.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39You've got to have eyes that can say everything,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and knees that make you laugh.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44If you haven't got funny knees - forget it!
0:01:46 > 0:01:54# The wonderful pantomime dame, why do you make us so laugh like you do?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57# Does she remind you of old Aunty Glad?
0:01:57 > 0:02:01# Or was it your nanny, or even your dad?
0:02:01 > 0:02:04# Whatever the reason, we laugh just the same
0:02:04 > 0:02:09# At the wonderful pantomime dame. #
0:02:16 > 0:02:20As if you hadn't guessed, that was yours truly,
0:02:20 > 0:02:24dressed as a woman for the first and last time, I promise!
0:02:24 > 0:02:28It's funny, you put on the dress, all the make-up and the wig,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31and you step out onto the stage a dame.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Not a man. Not a woman.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37But a powerful character, the heart and soul of pantomime.
0:02:37 > 0:02:38Go to bed!
0:02:38 > 0:02:42She's motherly, flirtatious and vain.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Outrageous, anarchic,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47and I love her!
0:02:50 > 0:02:53Now, I can remember my first pantomime,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56sitting in the wings on a bucket at Finsbury Park Empire,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59watching my Aunt Kathy as principal boy.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03But the thing that really captivated me - she was very good -
0:03:03 > 0:03:08but the thing that really captivated me was the pantomime dame.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11The comedy, the outrageous power of that character,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13the communication with the audience.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21Make-up time.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24So what it is it about this great British institution
0:03:24 > 0:03:26that still pulls in the crowds?
0:03:28 > 0:03:29Done, dusted.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Why has she survived and thrived for so long?
0:03:38 > 0:03:42I've come to York to meet the doyenne of modern pantomime dames.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46He's a living local legend and his name is Berwick Kaler.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49They queue for hours as soon as the tickets go on sale,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52and he's played dame here for over 30 years.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56He is indeed the first lady of modern pantomime.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01For 33 years, Berwick has written the annual pantomime
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and appeared as the dame.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06This year he's called it The York Family Robinson.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Every year it's a fresh and topical script.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25But, the first words he utters on stage are sacred.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27They never change.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29I utter four banal words.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36If I cough before I said these four words, the audience would be aghast!
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Me babbies, me bairns!
0:04:41 > 0:04:45And it puts everyone at ease. The family's back together again.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47- Nothing's changed. - The family's back together.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52- Have you missed us?- Yes! - We've missed you, I tell you.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55- Have you brought your sense of humour with you?- Yes!
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Oh, You're going to need it!
0:04:58 > 0:05:01He'll stand on stage and he will look the whole house
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and within seconds, everybody feels he's said hello to them,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07almost individually, and it's a fantastic ability to be
0:05:07 > 0:05:12able to do that and just take everybody in, really quickly.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Anybody who wants to make a rush for the door,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16you've got three seconds, one, two, three.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18DOORS SLAM SHUT
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Too late!
0:05:23 > 0:05:27You're all mine, and what a show we've got for you.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33Five minutes of solid entertainment crammed into six and a half hours.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37All I wanted to be was a Shakespearean actor,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and I was getting these pantomimes.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44When I first started here we were doing panto scripts
0:05:44 > 0:05:47that had been round the country, you know...
0:05:47 > 0:05:49- Stock, the stock... - Stock pantomimes.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52And, I just thought, no, this is not acceptable.
0:05:52 > 0:05:59- This is just conning the public. - No originality, no identification with the community.- No.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02- It could have been... - Anywhere, any town.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Anywhere in the UK, anywhere in the UK.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11And then the next year, the director said, "Well, why don't you just write it?"
0:06:11 > 0:06:15- And you enjoy writing it? - I love it, I love it, I love it.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17- Hi, Ma! Did you want something? - Yeah, look at these.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20- Are those bills? - No, they're mine!
0:06:24 > 0:06:30The writer Max Beerbohm said that pantomime was the only art form invented by the British.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33That's a slight exaggeration,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36but by absorbing the theatrical conventions and traditions
0:06:36 > 0:06:40of other nations, we have made it quintessentially British.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50The plot is always very simple, the girl dressed as a boy,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54who's the son of a man dressed as a woman.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58There's a man dressed as a woman, who has a son played by a girl,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03who's dressed as a boy, who falls in love with a girl who is a girl,
0:07:03 > 0:07:08and they're helped out by two people dressed as an animal.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Try explaining that to our American cousins!
0:07:12 > 0:07:18Big hello to the third year Shakespeare students...
0:07:18 > 0:07:21..from Connecticut, America.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24They have never seen a panto before
0:07:24 > 0:07:25LAUGHTER
0:07:28 > 0:07:29They still haven't!
0:07:29 > 0:07:31LAUGHTER
0:07:38 > 0:07:43This is Covent Garden, a great place to see street entertainers.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And it's piazzas like this one that saw the start of pantomime
0:07:47 > 0:07:49and the pantomime dame.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Our story begins in the sixteenth century, in the streets
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and marketplaces of France and Italy,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01with the tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, a sort of improvised
0:08:01 > 0:08:05comedies with a group of characters who are endlessly satirised.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12Audiences were entranced by the comedy, the cross-dressing,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16and the mayhem of Commedia and pantomime still entrances audiences,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21and professors of theatre studies!
0:08:21 > 0:08:25The origins of pantomime in Britain start with the importation
0:08:25 > 0:08:30of Italian performers from the Commedia dell'Arte.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32It's a typical structure of comedy -
0:08:32 > 0:08:36young lovers being thwarted by the older generation,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39having to get their way by all sorts of tricks.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And you have the famous Commedia characters,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46the Harlequin, the Pantaloon, the Columbine, and those gradually
0:08:46 > 0:08:52merge into a British version of the pantomime.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57The performance of Commedia in mask was actually generally a half mask,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01so that the mouth was free but the top of the face was
0:09:01 > 0:09:05characterised in a usually very exaggerated way.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09They're human and recognisable but also not quite human
0:09:09 > 0:09:10and recognisable.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16And today's traditional dame make-up - for example, the very high
0:09:16 > 0:09:20arched eyebrows the often very white face, acts as a kind of mask.
0:09:23 > 0:09:30It's extraordinary, but this is where the change starts,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33just by putting on the make-up, because I find myself,
0:09:33 > 0:09:39when I'm looking at myself, smiling more like a woman than a man.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40There's an old saying -
0:09:40 > 0:09:44"What the Lord has forgotten, we stuff with cotton."
0:09:44 > 0:09:46And now I stand on the side of the stage, take a deep breath
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and I hear the music and as soon as I've heard three bars of the music
0:09:50 > 0:09:52# Da-da, di diddle dee-dee... #
0:09:52 > 0:09:55I'm on! We're there. I'm a dame.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03I think it's that level of absurdity and almost grotesque humour,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06that takes us right back to Commedia dell'Arte.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13And we can see the same kind of humour in this remarkable silent film.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22It's called Le Pied de Mouton, and it is essentially a pantomime.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25It follows the dramatic form that would have been entirely familiar
0:10:25 > 0:10:28to theatre audiences in the eighteenth century.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Here are the young lovers, Harlequin and Columbine.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35But there's trouble ahead.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Here comes Columbine's father to thwart their plans.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46He wants Columbine to marry the rich fool, dressed as a clown.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56The characters and the plot are timeless
0:10:56 > 0:10:59and we know that love will conquer all.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03In between there's magic and slapstick,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07elements that remain to this day.
0:11:07 > 0:11:08Right.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11Oh, no!
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Aw, what a nasty accident!
0:11:16 > 0:11:18So in the eighteenth century,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23pantomime is starting to acquire the elements that we recognise today.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Slapstick. And transformation scenes.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30But one ingredient was missing.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34# What ain't we got? We ain't got dames. #
0:11:36 > 0:11:38in the eighteenth century there weren't dames as such
0:11:38 > 0:11:41in the way that we'd recognise them now,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45but there have always been men dressing up as women,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49generally women who are much older - they're not playing young females,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51they're playing the mothers.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54The nurse role in Romeo and Juliet, for example,
0:11:54 > 0:11:59I think is part of that comic, much more bawdy comic tradition.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07This is the heart of London's theatre district.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09Behind me the Royal Opera House,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12just around the corner the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and over in that direction is the site of the Lincoln's Inn Theatre.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Now the man who ran the theatre, actor-manager John Rich,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22is the founding father of the British pantomime.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27If you want to find out about John Rich, the place to come
0:12:27 > 0:12:30is the Garrick Club here on the edge of Covent Garden.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32It's not just a fine gentleman's club,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36it also boasts one of the greatest theatrical libraries in the country.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Just the place to find out how Rich got rich.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43This is an actual book kept by Rich,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and he kept an account of what he was putting on
0:12:46 > 0:12:51at Lincoln's Inn Fields and later at Covent Garden,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55an account of his takings, and importantly
0:12:55 > 0:13:00what the opposition were putting on at Drury Lane, just round the corner.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03And if we go to December the twentieth, 1723,
0:13:03 > 0:13:041723.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Here we can see The Drummer and Necromancer,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Harlequin Doctor Faustus for the first time.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14And the takings - £162.
0:13:14 > 0:13:15That's in one night.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18And the previous night with Don Quixote
0:13:18 > 0:13:20he only made £22.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23So from £22 to a £162,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and every night there's a pantomime, you're in a three-figure sum.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30He's really milking the cash.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32And £162 is how much today, do you think?
0:13:35 > 0:13:38You're looking at £200,000. a night.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43If he's doing what, six performances a week, or six - he's taking six,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46he's taking £1.2 million in today's spending power.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49It's a phenomenal amount.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51This is a goldmine, this man has struck gold,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and oil and diamonds - all in one place, with pantomime.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57With pantomime.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02He starts to become very successful. To what end? What was his ambition?
0:14:02 > 0:14:04He wanted to build a theatre.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08- But he had a theatre. - He wanted a better theatre, he wanted the best theatre,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11a bigger theatre. He wanted to blow Drury Lane out of the water.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16And it's the money that he'd made from his successes
0:14:16 > 0:14:19that enabled John Rich to move from the old theatre
0:14:19 > 0:14:24at Lincoln's Inn Fields and build a brand new theatre at Covent Garden.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28And in 1731 - and we can see him in this engraving -
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Rich's Glory or his Triumphant Entry Into Covent Garden
0:14:32 > 0:14:39- Oh, wow!- And here we have Harlequin driving the chariot shouting, "Rich for ever".
0:14:39 > 0:14:44- Here's John Rich in his dog costume, sitting...- Dog costume?
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Yeah - it's from earlier pantomimes where he played a dog,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50and he used to cock his leg.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Wow! What a showman! What a showman!
0:14:53 > 0:14:56We're only just discovering now, I think,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00the kinds of important things that John Rich did
0:15:00 > 0:15:06in establishing pantomime as this centrally English celebration of
0:15:06 > 0:15:10the enjoyment of theatre and the kind of silliness
0:15:10 > 0:15:14that you can have, as well as the serious part of it.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24From John Rich to the current day,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28there remain staple elements of pantomime.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35There's music, dance, a dash of topical satire
0:15:35 > 0:15:40and with Berwick's dying swan, some tragedy as well.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54And there's another pantomime tradition that Berwick's dame embraces - wordplay.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56It is one of the ingredients of pantomime.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Yes. And now I've got one here that you've written,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03and I was foolish enough to be persuaded.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05What part do you want?
0:16:05 > 0:16:07I'll play Wishy-washy. You can do Twankey.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10I'll play Wishy-washy, the accomplice.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Dad picked up this old bag in Baghdad, Dad did.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Did Dad pick up that old bag in Baghdad, did Dad?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Dad died of a deadly duodenal in Baghdad, Dad did.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22- Did Dad die in Baghdad, did Dad? - Dad did die in Baghdad, Dad did.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24- Did Dad die?- Dad did die.
0:16:24 > 0:16:31- Die.- Die.- Die.- Die. Did-ee eye-tye die die a-die a-die eye!
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Standing ovation.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40Pantomime is family-friendly, of course,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42but a good dame should be nice and naughty.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Eee, This takes me back!
0:16:46 > 0:16:49There is a knowing conspiracy between the dame
0:16:49 > 0:16:52and the audience, who accept she's a woman played by a man.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Right, let's all get a good night's sleep!
0:16:59 > 0:17:02It's all good knockabout fun...
0:17:05 > 0:17:09..with endless possibilities for the double entendre.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13And the mistress of the form was the brilliant Jack Tripp.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17- Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello! - Hello. I don't think I've had the pleasure.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19No, and I don't think you're going to, either!
0:17:19 > 0:17:23- It's you!- It is I.- I didn't recognise you.- Oh, thank you!
0:17:23 > 0:17:25You look marvellous. Really and truly.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26You've got to see it to believe it.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Well, you'd better believe it, because you're not going to see it.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34But there's that terrible old joke about double entendres, you know,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36I can't stand double entendres,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39if I see one in a script I just want to whip it out.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41And there is that kind of element to it
0:17:41 > 0:17:44- and I don't like pantomimes being rude.- Smutty, yes.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47But there is an element that children don't understand,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51- that adults do.- It has to be a double entendre, not a single.
0:17:51 > 0:17:52Yeah!
0:17:52 > 0:17:56What about my poor sister Annie? She's gone, you know, has my Annie,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00and my poor old granny, and my sister Fanny, what am I going to do?
0:18:00 > 0:18:04No Annie, no granny and no sign of my other sister at all!
0:18:08 > 0:18:13Another legacy from the earliest pantomimes is topical satire.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Even Berwick writes it into his family-friendly pantomimes.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19- He's staggering!- It's as if he doesn't know which way to turn.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23- He's going to the left.- Bit like the Conservatives!- Now he's going to the right.- Bit like Labour!
0:18:23 > 0:18:27- He's running away. - Bit like the Liberals!
0:18:27 > 0:18:30This kind of mockery and topicality can be traced right back
0:18:30 > 0:18:34to the pantomime scripts of John Rich.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38In 1721, Rich included verses about the South Sea Bubble,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42a giant financial scandal that wiped out thousands of investors.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45His verses wouldn't be out of place today.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48But for the South Sea Bubble read Lehman Brothers or
0:18:48 > 0:18:51the Greek debt crisis.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55"Hear me weep and wail, Listen to my doleful ditty
0:18:55 > 0:18:58"Mind my wretched state and pity.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01"While the stocks were rising, rising,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03"My fortunes were surprising.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07"But now they fail, My garments at sale
0:19:07 > 0:19:10"My hopes beguiled, My remnants spoiled
0:19:10 > 0:19:12"And I am ruined out of measure."
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Breaks your heart, doesn't it?
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Topicality, satire and other wonderful pantomime conventions
0:19:24 > 0:19:27have their roots here in the West End of London
0:19:27 > 0:19:33at John Rich's Covent Garden, and at a rival establishment nearby.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36This is the great Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39just a stone's throw from Rich's Covent Garden.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Inside here, treading the boards,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44was the great actor-manager of the day, David Garrick.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47Now, Rich's vulgar entertainments were giving Garrick a problem,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50stealing audiences from the serious theatre.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So he decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59David Garrick, the great actor-manager of his day,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03the great Shakespearean, realises that John Rich is doing
0:20:03 > 0:20:06so well, he's actually taking away his business,
0:20:06 > 0:20:12so at Drury Lane, we find the great David Garrick admitting this,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15and saying, "You know, if my audiences won't come to Hamlet
0:20:15 > 0:20:18"or Lear, I must give them Harlequin."
0:20:18 > 0:20:21And he does - and it's a wow!
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Gyles Brandreth is a former MP and a familiar TV face.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35But it's not as widely known that Gyles is a genuine
0:20:35 > 0:20:39pantomime historian and passionate about the subject.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42He knows the works of Garrick inside out.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47David Garrick, you know, founder of the Shakespeare festival,
0:20:47 > 0:20:48gets into pantomime.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51And one of the shows he gives us, is Harlequin Invasion.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55Topical show, this is all about General Wolfe, the Heights of Quebec and all this,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58and it includes this song with which you may even be familiar.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02"We still make them feel, and we still make them flee,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06"and drub them at shore, as we drub them at sea, so cheer up m'lads with
0:21:06 > 0:21:11"one heart let us sing, oh soldiers and sailors our statesman and King,
0:21:11 > 0:21:16"hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men..."
0:21:16 > 0:21:22# We always are ready, steady, boys, steady... #
0:21:23 > 0:21:24"Hearts of oak..."
0:21:24 > 0:21:25Which lives on today.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28..which lives on today - lives on today in the navy -
0:21:28 > 0:21:31but they got the whole audience singing Hearts of Oak.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33Yeah, wonderful. It's all down to panto.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36History of Britain, panto!
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Oh, no it isn't!
0:21:38 > 0:21:40That's very good!
0:21:45 > 0:21:49So in the eighteenth century, pantomime has audience participation
0:21:49 > 0:21:54and box office hits, but still no sign of the dame.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Don't panic!
0:21:56 > 0:22:01Enter a character who would transform pantomime
0:22:01 > 0:22:05and open the door for the dame.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08In 1781, a three-year-old boy appeared on the stage
0:22:08 > 0:22:12at Drury Lane in one of David Garrick's pantomimes.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14He was to become the greatest
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and the most influential figure in the whole history of the art form.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21His name - Joseph Grimaldi.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29The reason that Grimaldi is so important in the story of pantomime,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31is that Grimaldi moves the clown centre-stage.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36Until then the harlequinade had essentially been a romantic story.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39- Like a fool in Shakespeare? - Exactly.- Just a bit player.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41- A bit player, and now... - ..comic relief.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Comic relief, but now actually the funny bits become the central bits.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48He walked in funny.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51And they say that with a clown, with a great clown,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54the two tests are the eyes, and the knees.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58You've got to have eyes that can say everything,
0:22:58 > 0:23:00and knees that make you laugh.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03If you haven't got funny knees, forget it.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Grimaldi changed the face of pantomime
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and paved the way for the pantomime dame.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11It's Grimaldi also who adapts
0:23:11 > 0:23:14what we think of now as the standard clown makeup,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16the crying and laughing clown,
0:23:16 > 0:23:21that was Grimaldi's makeup - that was his mask.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26He was a sensation in everything he was in, every pantomime.
0:23:26 > 0:23:32Here we have him - Grimaldi's Bang Up in the pantomime of The Golden Fish.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36I mean, we are talking genius here, aren't we, by all accounts?
0:23:36 > 0:23:39Yeah. And, in the pantomime of the Red Dwarf.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41With his Mohican.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47Wow! He must have been absolutely mesmerising, and funny.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48Funny, funny, funny.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Yeah. A lunatic.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Do you think Grimaldi won popularity with the kind of
0:23:56 > 0:24:00sideways look at the Regency period and a bit of satire?
0:24:00 > 0:24:03The joy of these early pantomimes is that they manage to get under
0:24:03 > 0:24:06the barrier when it came to the rules and regulations,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10because if you were performing a straightforward play,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13you had to get a licence to do so, but if it was a pantomime
0:24:13 > 0:24:16that included music and pantomimic interludes,
0:24:16 > 0:24:18no script was required for that, so there they are confronted
0:24:18 > 0:24:23with a live audience and a live entertainer who comes on, knowing
0:24:23 > 0:24:26that he can get away with anything, cos it's for one night only.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29You could make political remarks. And he did so.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32And he was said to be really quite sharp and observant.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36If you wanted the slapstick, the visual humour - he was there.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39If you wanted the song, he was there, the sentiment - he was there.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42- If you wanted the sharpness, there he was.- Amazing.
0:24:46 > 0:24:53This is probably the closest we can get to see what Grimaldi was like on stage.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57This is George Robey, the music hall star and pantomime dame
0:24:57 > 0:25:03appearing as a clown in a silent film from 1923.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Funny face and funny knees.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14And Grimaldi didn't just wear a bit of slap, he also put on a frock.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16He did play comic women.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22In a pantomime he famously played the part of Queen Rondabellyanna,
0:25:22 > 0:25:27Rondabellyanna, you know, and dressed physically for that role.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30So he was a comic dame figure.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32I bet he was wonderful.
0:25:32 > 0:25:33He must have been wonderful.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43This is Grimaldi's grave.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48He died in 1837, the year that Queen Victoria ascended the throne.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53One newspaper wrote, "Grimaldi is dead - he hath left no peer.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58"We fear that with him, the spirit of pantomime has disappeared."
0:25:58 > 0:26:02Well, it hasn't disappeared, and his spirit is very much alive today.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05It was Grimaldi who put the clown centre-stage and donned the frock.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10It was Grimaldi who laid the foundation for the modern pantomime dame.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24So you now get comics who are going to be central characters,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and comics see the potential in the mother-in-law figure,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32of dressing up as a woman, the dame, and the dame is born.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35- And flirting and...- Flirt, and you can be every sort of...
0:26:35 > 0:26:39I mean as a dame, you know, a bloke as a woman can be everything -
0:26:39 > 0:26:44can be imperious, can be flirtatious, play...
0:26:44 > 0:26:47- Shy, coquettish.- And it's all larger than life.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50- You're a natural - have you been...? - I've always wanted to play the part.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Getting quite a lot of practising at home!
0:26:53 > 0:26:56- Indeed, very quietly. - We'll talk about that later!
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Of all the wonderful dame characters,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04there's one that stands out for me, and that's Widow Twankey.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Hold it, hold it! Oh, dear.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14It's just like peeling onions, that is!
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Widow Twankey is a key figure in the evolution of pantomime.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27She is the very model of the modern pantomime dame.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30I'm in search of the first Widow Twankey and I've come
0:27:30 > 0:27:34to the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum to find her.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35After you.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Curator Cathy Hailes is my guide.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41I brought you in here to show you a playbill.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45You asked me when Widow Twankey first appeared,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47and here on this playbill,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51which is for the Strand Theatre, in 1861,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53second on the bill, not just the pantomime.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57A-ha. The Widow Twankay.
0:27:57 > 0:27:58Twankay.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02"Aladdin's mother, 'who,' to quote the Arabian Nights, 'was rather old
0:28:02 > 0:28:05"and who even in her youth, had not possessed any beauty' -
0:28:05 > 0:28:07"Mr James Rogers."
0:28:07 > 0:28:09What's interesting, of course, is the name,
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Twankay - which is the name that comes from the rather inferior tea
0:28:13 > 0:28:18which people would have known about at the time, that, Twankay tea...
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Widow Tetley, or...?
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Yes. And here we have a photograph.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30And I mean, this is wonderful because this is 1861.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32- Early photography - Early photography.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Of course they couldn't do it in theatres -
0:28:36 > 0:28:39- they were doing it in studios. - Look, and here's Widow Twankay.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44There he is, Jimmy Rogers in a very modest,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47quite authentically Chinese costume.
0:28:47 > 0:28:48Earrings.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52The eyebrows look very nicely painted on.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58So, here we have not only the first portrayal of Widow Twankey,
0:28:58 > 0:28:59but she also gives us evidence
0:28:59 > 0:29:05of that enduring pantomime convention, the double entendre.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08"My husband was a tailor but he's gone,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11"he's just popped off as he was getting on...
0:29:11 > 0:29:14"..while sewing on a button, husband, why?
0:29:14 > 0:29:17"What made you thus pop off the hook and die?"
0:29:17 > 0:29:20And so I think there's that humour of the word "pop" for a start.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23You then wonder, well, where were the buttons?
0:29:23 > 0:29:26Were they his fly buttons for example, which would have
0:29:26 > 0:29:30been, you know - the fly would have been buttoned in this period,
0:29:30 > 0:29:35so there's the kind of silliness of the sound of that language,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39but there's also the sense of, maybe,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41the Widow Twankey caused her husband to die
0:29:41 > 0:29:45because of her excessive demands on him, and, you know,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48he's just decided it's easier to give up the ghost
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and pop off and die!
0:29:52 > 0:29:56As Widow Twankey and other dames took centre stage,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00pantomime became ever more extravagant and lavish.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03It was now the family Christmas treat.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08And the family wanted a spectacle they'd never forget.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Under the guiding genius of manager Augustus Harris,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16nowhere did it bigger and better than Drury Lane.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21He installed the latest technology, and amazingly it's still in place.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24Mark Fox is taking me behind the scenes.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27OK, we're coming under the stage of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane now,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30and of course Drury Lane was built for spectacle -
0:30:30 > 0:30:32it was famous for spectacle.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Really grand front of house, lovely place for audiences to come to,
0:30:35 > 0:30:39but the managers wanted to create as spectacular productions as they can.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41This was all cutting-edge technology,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44this was the most expensive kit that could possibly be installed
0:30:44 > 0:30:48at the time, and they're hydraulic rams, they're all operated by water,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and there are four of them, but they all work independently,
0:30:51 > 0:30:56so not only could that actually lift the stage up 12 feet high,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59and lower it right down to the bottom level, but because they
0:30:59 > 0:31:03work independently, one could go up and the other side could go down.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05All designed to get 2,300 people
0:31:05 > 0:31:09sitting out there in the auditorium to go "Wow!"
0:31:12 > 0:31:17The sheer ambition of these sets is breathtaking.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Used for melodramas and pantomimes,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24this technology pushed special effects to new heights.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30So you could sink a ship, you could have an earthquake,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33you could have something rocking from side to side.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37It turned the whole pantomime experience into something enormous.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40It's like Sam Goldwyn said of one of his movies,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45- "I want it to start with an earthquake and build up to a climax!"- Indeed, exactly that,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48and Augustus Harris would have agreed with him, wholeheartedly.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52Augustus Harris spent a fortune on these pantomimes,
0:31:52 > 0:31:54but he knew how to turn a profit.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57I notice from some of the programmes I've seen from the period,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59there are advertisements in it.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02- Vital. Product placement was... - In the show?
0:32:02 > 0:32:06It wasn't just in the programmes - it would be in the show.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09And you would have sets that would actually have -
0:32:09 > 0:32:11you'd have a street scene or a shop,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14and there would be product placement on there, you'd have Fry's Chocolate Cream,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17or you'd have the gin that was being sold front-of-house.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21I wonder what the critics made of this vulgarisation of the theatre.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25Funnily enough, I just happen to have one that I can read to you,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28so this is an excerpt from a review in The Star.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32And it says, "The Drury Lane pantomime is a symbol of our nation.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35"It is the biggest thing of its kind in the world.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37"It is a prodigal of money, of invention,
0:32:37 > 0:32:41"of splendour, of men and women, but it is without
0:32:41 > 0:32:44"the sense of beauty or the restraining influence of taste.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47"Only a great nation could have done such a thing.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52"Only an undisciplined nation WOULD have done it".
0:32:52 > 0:32:54MUSIC: God Save The Queen
0:32:56 > 0:33:00The audience for a typical Victorian pantomime was probably
0:33:00 > 0:33:04a cross-section of Britain - people of all shapes, ages,
0:33:04 > 0:33:05sizes and classes attended.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13It was the Boxing Day entertainment, and it was eagerly awaited.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18So you have this example of a pantomime audience in 1852 -
0:33:18 > 0:33:22"The pit was crammed to suffocation, oranges too were eaten
0:33:22 > 0:33:26"with their customary eagerness and the skins flung upon the heads
0:33:26 > 0:33:29"of the persons in the pit, who sought to return the courtesy.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33"Stand-up fights there were, too, among the occupants of the upper regions,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37"but on the whole, the audience behaved very decently for a Christmas audience."
0:33:38 > 0:33:42What were they like when they were rowdy, I wonder?
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Today's pantomime audiences may not get into fisticuffs,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49but they share one thing in common with their Victorian counterparts.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53They're attracted to the theatre to see celebs.
0:33:53 > 0:33:59This is a trend started a century ago by our old friend Augustus Harris.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02He found that he could bring in huge crowds by booking the most popular
0:34:02 > 0:34:04music hall stars of the day.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Augustus Harris was known as old Druriolanus.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12He brought Marie Lloyd into pantomime, put her
0:34:12 > 0:34:17into Humpty-Dumpty and he brought Dan Leno to national prominence.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21There are two names in the annals of pantomime that stand out
0:34:21 > 0:34:24from the crowd, that come forward to take their bow -
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Joseph Grimaldi and Dan Leno.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32So, Dan Leno was a huge music hall star. He danced, he sang, he told jokes.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Nobody can quite tell you why he was the funniest man on earth -
0:34:35 > 0:34:39they always come back to the eyes, and I think that must be because,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42it's clear from the pictures of him that he played the whole house.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Looking, as it were, as if the world had beaten him down,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47but he was still there.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50So, he would come on - small, dainty, diminutive,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54doing it all with the eyes, little movements, he is the put-upon woman.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58He comes on playing Widow Twankey, any of the great female characters,
0:34:58 > 0:35:05and it is, a housewife, checked long frock, apron, exaggerated, wig.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10And if you are a pantomime dame, you know, 2013, 2014 -
0:35:10 > 0:35:13rest assured, Dan Leno made you what you are.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15- Do you like the frock?- Yes!
0:35:15 > 0:35:20Peacocks, Acomb branch. Buy one, get one free!
0:35:20 > 0:35:21This is the free one!
0:35:23 > 0:35:29Dan Leno is the Dame's Dame, revered by all who followed in his footsteps.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Among them was one of the twentieth century's great dames, Douglas Byng,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36who had appeared in over thirty pantomimes.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40Here's what he had to say about the great Dan Leno.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44When we talk about pantomime dames as played by a man,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47we immediately think of the greatest dame of all time, Dan Leno,
0:35:47 > 0:35:52who started playing the dame a hundred years ago, and really,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56ever since then, the dame's been played along those lines.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58He was brilliant, of course.
0:35:58 > 0:36:03But he really was the sort of model for all the dames since.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09The story of the dame is a story of changing social attitudes.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12The dame is a kind of weather vane.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14But though she may blow with the wind,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18there are parts of her that never, ever change.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21A dame should be definitely a man.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And the audience should know he's a man.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26And the kids in the audience should know he's a man.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29I go on as Arthur Askey, with a hired wig,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32and a hired frock and play me.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37Do you think men laugh as much at the dame character as the women do?
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Yes, but not - how do I put this?
0:36:41 > 0:36:44If a dame makes a man uncomfortable in the audience, forget it.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46- You're in trouble. - You're really in trouble.
0:36:46 > 0:36:53A dame must appeal to all age groups and every section of that audience.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56The audience will accept you as a woman.
0:36:56 > 0:36:57Not your day, is it, sir?
0:36:57 > 0:36:58LAUGHTER
0:37:00 > 0:37:01You look a bit shocked.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Is this the first time you've ever smelt Paco Rabanne on a woman?
0:37:04 > 0:37:06LAUGHTER
0:37:06 > 0:37:11But your attitude on stage is a feminine attitude, is it not?
0:37:11 > 0:37:13- Yes, you... - It's a point of view.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15..you do not send women up, you do not do that.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22You fight for women's causes, and everything you say is as a woman.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24When you tell the story as a fella you do it your own way
0:37:24 > 0:37:28and in your own sort of kind of casual or whatever way you tell your story.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30But if you tell it as a dame,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33you then have to use three movements, most important -
0:37:33 > 0:37:37one is there, two is there, and three, at the tag is, there.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40So you tell your story. You say, "But did you...?"
0:37:40 > 0:37:42And suddenly you're playing a dame.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The right gestures, an outrageous frock, and hey presto, you're a dame.
0:37:51 > 0:37:52How hard can it be?
0:37:55 > 0:38:00In the 1970s, pantomime could attract the biggest names.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02Stars like Richard Briers.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04His hit series, The Good Life,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07attracted audiences of up to 20 million in its heyday.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11MIMICS JAMES CAGNEY: OK, shweethearts, nobody moves.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Then one fateful day, pantomime came calling.
0:38:19 > 0:38:20Close your eyes.
0:38:23 > 0:38:24GUNSHOT
0:38:24 > 0:38:28Your agent rings you and says, "We've had an offer for pantomime."
0:38:28 > 0:38:30You said, "That's very interesting." And then he said,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33"The good news is they want you to play dame." How did you react?
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Well, I mean just laughed.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38The whole thing was laughter. I don't do that kind of thing.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40I don't do variety.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42I'm just an actor.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46Stepping into what is essentially a vaudeville environment
0:38:46 > 0:38:48is quite a big step, isn't it?
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Yes, very much, very much, and you have to be funny.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56And I mean I was with a guy called Bobby Bennett
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and he said, "You know you've got to do the balloons."
0:38:59 > 0:39:03I said, "I'm sorry?" He said, "The balloons, you've got to do the balloons
0:39:03 > 0:39:06"and then you've gotta make them into dogs, cats."
0:39:07 > 0:39:10I said, "I can't do that very well at all."
0:39:10 > 0:39:14He thought, "He can't do anything. He's an idiot. What is he doing?
0:39:14 > 0:39:18"He gets the most money than we do, more money than we do,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20"and he's got the billing."
0:39:20 > 0:39:22I thought, well, you know, you've got to be...
0:39:22 > 0:39:25You're supposed to be a butch dame, you know, and I couldn't do that.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28But the whole thing was very... it was a very, worried me.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30- You didn't enjoy it?- No.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Not so easy after all.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43So how have the great dames of the 20th century approached the role?
0:39:43 > 0:39:45How do they get the audience to love them?
0:39:50 > 0:39:51When I played Mother Goose,
0:39:51 > 0:39:55that's when I really started to think more about technique.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59And I would stop and say, no, no. An old woman wouldn't do it that way.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01An old woman wouldn't speak that way.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Or a kind old woman wouldn't do that.
0:40:04 > 0:40:10Then I suppose I was getting a little bit more like my mother.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Everybody has their own way of playing it.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14I play it like my mother.
0:40:14 > 0:40:20She said, "Oh, well, I've got a simulated mink in the cupboard."
0:40:20 > 0:40:26Or, "Your father, he stays in bed all day long on is dunnylumpoma."
0:40:26 > 0:40:31Which I thought was... I get all those things, I'm not going to tell you
0:40:31 > 0:40:35too many things otherwise, you know, you'll be playing dame yourself.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39It got nearer and nearer and like my person of my mother.
0:40:39 > 0:40:40Ah.
0:40:40 > 0:40:46And so she was slightly snobbish, and so I began more and more
0:40:46 > 0:40:49and more - which I am a little bit I suppose - a bit sort of,
0:40:49 > 0:40:54"Hello, Mother, where are you?" And it would get more and posh.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59And "Come along, dears, off to bed." So it wasn't very butch at all,
0:40:59 > 0:41:04which I prefer the man to be very butch as a dame, I think it's right.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08But in order to get through it you found that by, sort of playing Mum...
0:41:08 > 0:41:11- Yes.- And did people laugh?
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Not a lot, but...I did my best.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Terry Scott was also a TV favourite,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26starring in the 1970s sitcom Terry and June.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31It says we owe £58.49.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33- That's what- they- say.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35Well, how much have they over-charged us?
0:41:35 > 0:41:3612p.
0:41:36 > 0:41:37LAUGHTER
0:41:38 > 0:41:40- 12p?- Yes.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45It's hard to believe that this dull character in a beige cardigan
0:41:45 > 0:41:47and his glorious dame are one and the same.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49It's the principle of the thing.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52In a revealing interview in 1982,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54he explained how he found the dame within.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00My dame is an extension of myself.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Most people, a lot of people realise that they're male
0:42:03 > 0:42:04and female inside them.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08And yet my degree of femininity is higher
0:42:08 > 0:42:11than a lot of real sort of aggressive butch men.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15And I suppose that is why the dame comes reasonably easy to me.
0:42:16 > 0:42:17LAUGHTER
0:42:17 > 0:42:19Wheeee!
0:42:23 > 0:42:28When they see this man being a bit of a woman, it's all right.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31It releases possibly some of their feelings of, "Oh dear,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35"sometimes I feel a bit womanish," without being peculiar.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42The more you look at the dame, the more fascinating she gets.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45It's interesting to me that the tradition of cross-dressing
0:42:45 > 0:42:51- in order to make an audience laugh is very much a male preserve.- Yes.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Why do you think that might be?
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Even today, you don't laugh
0:42:56 > 0:42:58if a woman gets bucket of water thrown over her.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03I think it's because women are more grown up than men.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Women are not as silly as men.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Women have more gravitas than men.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14And if women appear silly,
0:43:14 > 0:43:20they lose their authority, and a man can be silly and fall over
0:43:20 > 0:43:22and still retain a modicum of authority.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Silly men are part of our culture,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31and because, in the rest of life,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34men are expected to be grown up, whereas we're not, actually.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41RAUNCHY STRIPPER MUSIC
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Terry's Scott's strip. Pure genius.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36Proof, if you need it, that there really is nothing like a dame.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Post-war, the most dazzling dames were
0:44:48 > 0:44:50appearing at the London Palladium.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59My dad, Leslie Grade, produced a lot of these shows and looking back now
0:44:59 > 0:45:03at the cast lists, they read like a Who's Who of British entertainment.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07Starting right at the beginning with Val Parnell,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10I mean, they'd be headlined by Tommy Trinder, those big comedians
0:45:10 > 0:45:15of the day, then you'd work through everybody. So, Bruce Forsyth,
0:45:15 > 0:45:16Bernard Breslaw, the big names,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Sidney James appeared in pantomime, Peter Sellers...
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Tommy Steele, Engelbert Humperdink in Robinson Crusoe
0:45:22 > 0:45:25singing There Goes My Everything as the ship went down.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29And the later stages it was the big Saturday night variety names, so,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33Leslie Crowther, Terry Scott, Cilla Black, Cliff Richard and the Shadows.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Pantomime has always been market savvy and in the 1960s
0:45:39 > 0:45:42it reached out to the growing teenage market.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Cliff and the Shadows appeared alongside dames like Terry Scott
0:45:45 > 0:45:46and Arthur Askey.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52You've got to move with the times and these days
0:45:52 > 0:45:57with the pop singers, if you put a pop singer in as principal boy,
0:45:57 > 0:46:03it must be a success, it's got to be a success with the teenagers.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Those pantomimes were big expensive productions,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10so a lot of money invested in them getting the biggest stars again
0:46:10 > 0:46:13to attract the biggest audience, all the television names,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17they became very, very expensive
0:46:17 > 0:46:22and to try and make your money back in that limited 12-week period,
0:46:22 > 0:46:24in the West End, is not easy.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26You also had the product placement, of course,
0:46:26 > 0:46:30so I think 1976, the Cinderella, they'd just revamped
0:46:30 > 0:46:34the Sugar Puffs, so the Honey Monster appeared for the first time.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37I can top that - we did Cinderella one year
0:46:37 > 0:46:40and we had an act from Las Vegas, an animal act, an elephant,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42Tanya the Adorable Elephant,
0:46:42 > 0:46:48and there was a big sign on the stage that Tanya flew to the palace on TWA.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55But the biggest and most glamorous dame of this period was not
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Tanya the adorable elephant, it was, of course, Danny La Rue.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Wotcha, mates!
0:47:04 > 0:47:05CHEERING
0:47:05 > 0:47:10# Jolly good luck to the girl who loves a soldier
0:47:10 > 0:47:12# Girls, have you been there? #
0:47:12 > 0:47:17Danny broke the Dan Leno mould of men in frocks.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22He was a one-off, a gorgeous plumed creature, more duchess than dame.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Danny took the panto dame in a different direction.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31And his costumes ended up in the V&A archives.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35Now what is this you're showing us?
0:47:35 > 0:47:37This is one of two...
0:47:37 > 0:47:40It's not yours, is it, not one you brought from home?
0:47:40 > 0:47:41No!
0:47:42 > 0:47:45This is one of two frocks we've got,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49of, of course the glamorous Danny la Rue.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Ah, Mother Goose. Wonderful, look at this embroidery.
0:47:53 > 0:47:54Fantastic.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56You've got the little goslings.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01So with this frock, you've got your egg handbag.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03MICHAEL LAUGHS
0:48:03 > 0:48:08Beautifully done. Look, look, with a gold satin lining.
0:48:08 > 0:48:09Isn't that wonderful?
0:48:09 > 0:48:11What every woman wants.
0:48:11 > 0:48:12And then the hat.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Now the hat's even got a surprise in it.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Whether many people, apart from those
0:48:18 > 0:48:22right at the front of the stalls could have appreciated this.
0:48:22 > 0:48:23There we go.
0:48:23 > 0:48:24Oh, the wings move!
0:48:24 > 0:48:26And the beaks.
0:48:26 > 0:48:27MICHAEL LAUGHS
0:48:27 > 0:48:30That's a work of art, isn't it?
0:48:30 > 0:48:31All... All to get a laugh.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Here's Danny wearing it. There it is. Look, isn't that wonderful?
0:48:36 > 0:48:40He was a female impersonator who made the transition to playing dame.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43There are pantomime dames who didn't like what Danny la Rue did
0:48:43 > 0:48:46because they just made him a beautiful woman,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50and someone like Arthur Askey always said, you ought to
0:48:50 > 0:48:54believe that there are trousers underneath this frock.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57Danny la Rue, great female impersonator,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01when he first came into pantomime, really didn't quite get
0:49:01 > 0:49:04the measure of it, because he came on looking far too glamorous.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08- Wanted to be glamorous. - He needed to be glamorous, that was his calling card.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10It was only when he was of riper years that he
0:49:10 > 0:49:14turned into a figure who could be a successful pantomime dame.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19While pantomime brought in talent from TV,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24by the 1970s, TV was borrowing the pantomime dame.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Take Dick Emery's character, the charming Mandy.
0:49:27 > 0:49:28Excuse me.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31- Here's a charming young lady. - Oh, thank you.
0:49:31 > 0:49:32May I ask you, miss,
0:49:32 > 0:49:35is there any particular day that stands out in your memory.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Oh, yes, one awful day,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40when I got back home and found a burglar in my flat.
0:49:40 > 0:49:41It was dreadful.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Oh, dear, did he rummage through your drawers?
0:49:44 > 0:49:45LAUGHTER
0:49:46 > 0:49:48I mean did he manage to lay his hands on your best bits and pieces?
0:49:48 > 0:49:50LAUGHTER
0:49:50 > 0:49:52Oh, you're awful, awful,
0:49:52 > 0:49:53but I like you.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03And two of my favourite cross-dressers are Les Dawson
0:50:03 > 0:50:07and Roy Barraclough, playing Cissie and Ada.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11I was just thinking you looked a trifle wan.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Well, let's face it, you know, I am at a funny age.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18I wouldn't tell another living soul this, of course.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22I'm approaching the change.
0:50:22 > 0:50:23LAUGHTER
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Approaching the change? From which direction.
0:50:29 > 0:50:30LAUGHTER
0:50:36 > 0:50:37The dame has come a long way
0:50:37 > 0:50:42since John Rich staged the first pantomime in the 18th century.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45This corner of London has seen a fantastic cast list
0:50:45 > 0:50:50of harlequins, clowns, actors, all culminating, of course, in the dame.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53Well she's now departed the West End stage.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58The last pantomime at the Palladium was produced back in 1986.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00She may have left the theatre district,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03but she's alive and well in another part of the city.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05This is Stratford in London's East End,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08just a stone's throw from the Olympic Stadium.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13I've come to the Theatre Royal, to see how pantomime looks today,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16and how they manage to appeal to an audience drawn from one
0:51:16 > 0:51:20of the most culturally diverse populations in the whole country.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24This year they're doing Cinderella and they haven't got one dame,
0:51:24 > 0:51:25they've got three.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33I think what we try and do here, because of the diversity of our audience,
0:51:33 > 0:51:35is take all those stock elements,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38and try and keep them as relevant and as modern
0:51:38 > 0:51:41as we can, and that's where we try, that's how we try and keep it fresh.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43I will look the best, won't I?
0:51:43 > 0:51:45AUDIENCE: No!
0:51:45 > 0:51:47Oh, yes, I will!
0:51:47 > 0:51:49Oh, no, you won't!
0:51:49 > 0:51:51Oh, yes, I will!
0:51:51 > 0:51:52Oh, no, you won't!
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Who will have you, when they can have this picture
0:51:55 > 0:52:01of perfection before your very eyes, with all of this, and all of this?
0:52:01 > 0:52:03You know I'm sexy, ain't I?
0:52:03 > 0:52:05Did you just say "Eurgh"?
0:52:05 > 0:52:08- Yes!- You know, I never liked you lot! Shut up.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12The pantomime dame is significant to kind of all our audience
0:52:12 > 0:52:14because she/he is anarchic.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16SHE/HE YELLS
0:52:18 > 0:52:21there's a grit to them, there's a passion to them,
0:52:21 > 0:52:22there's raw desire,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26and everyone recognises that, no matter where you're from.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30And that's kind of why they will work in front of any kind of audience.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34I have worked hard to get where I am today, marrying your father.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38For many people in the UK, pantomime is their only experience of theatre.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44And that's reflected in the numbers that come to Stratford.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46More people come to our panto than anything else.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49We get about over 33,000 people each year coming to it,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52and it's a programme where you'll get all
0:52:52 > 0:52:55the generations coming and it's one of your biggest earners too.
0:52:55 > 0:52:56- Do you like my dress?- Yes!
0:52:56 > 0:52:58Do you think I should wear it tonight?
0:52:58 > 0:53:01And Kerry follows another convention that harks back to
0:53:01 > 0:53:03the Victorian era.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08Panto sponsorship is possibly the easiest thing you can sponsor in a season.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10Thank you.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13And this year we were able to get a shopping centre, Gallion's Reach,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17to sponsor this year's panto, and we'll build on that year on year.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Yes, I am a Gallion's Reach girl. Are you?
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Oh, and coincidentally,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Gallion's Reach happen to be sponsors of this year's panto.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30CAST EXCLAIM
0:53:30 > 0:53:34You, you, what's your name? Buttocks,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37come with us, we shall need some extra hands to carry all our purchases.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39Carry your own!
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Meanwhile, at York they take a different approach to
0:53:46 > 0:53:47the commercial break.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50Now it's Newky and Wagon Wheels time!
0:53:50 > 0:53:53It's become a traditional part of the show
0:53:53 > 0:53:55and a much loved one at that.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59They chuck chocolate into the audience and hand out a beer.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04The sponsorship for our pantomime is not financial.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07We don't get a huge cheque from anybody for our pantomime
0:54:07 > 0:54:12and we don't mention anybody's name because they've given us money to put the pantomime on.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14They get lobbed out into the audience
0:54:14 > 0:54:17and people desperately want to catch a Wagon Wheel.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22It's just funny and it's a really exciting part of the panto.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26And giving them Newcastle Brown Ale, is very much
0:54:26 > 0:54:30something about the fact that Berwick's a Geordie in Yorkshire.
0:54:30 > 0:54:37It's kind of like a gift from his home, his home region to Yorkshire.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41And to that extent it doesn't ever really feel like sponsorship,
0:54:41 > 0:54:43it feels as if it's just a part of the show.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49It represents something that's never-changing.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52It's very clear what it is to people and they love it.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55And it's great fun, you laugh a lot when you come to the pantomime.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00TS Eliot had this wonderful line about the security of known
0:55:00 > 0:55:03relationships, and I think one of the reasons that pantomime
0:55:03 > 0:55:08is this enduring British tradition is that it is part of our DNA.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11It has never exported itself successfully
0:55:11 > 0:55:15beyond the British Empire. It is something that we understand.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17It's like bread and butter pudding.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19I mean, it is something that for us, you know,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22other people would think revolting, but we understand it, we know
0:55:22 > 0:55:25what it's about, we understand pantomime, we know the rules.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27What I've always loved about pantomime,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32is the strength of the story and the moral aspect of it,
0:55:32 > 0:55:39and the fact that the dame was allowed to do absolutely anything, really.
0:55:39 > 0:55:45She was motherly, kind, foolish, fallible...
0:55:45 > 0:55:47- Flirtatious.- Flirtatious,
0:55:47 > 0:55:53disciplined, silly...um, and strong.
0:55:53 > 0:55:59A dame is outrageous, a dame never really offends anybody.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02A dame should be vulgar, beautifully vulgar.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05And I love the dame's vulgarity.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11As a dame I think Berwick is very much a bloke in a frock.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18It goes I think to the heart of what pantomime is because it's,
0:56:18 > 0:56:22it's somehow or other it's about, misrule,
0:56:22 > 0:56:23the notion of Twelfth Night.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26Everything's the wrong way round all of a sudden.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30There's a relationship to be had between him as dame
0:56:30 > 0:56:32and the audience, which is very familiar,
0:56:32 > 0:56:37and in the role of the dame he is allowed to have that special relationship.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42I've had my name over West End theatres, and the titles,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45but I would never take an 18-month contract,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47because it interfered with pantomime.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52Everything has revolved around, for the last 30-odd years,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54around this York pantomime.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00And for that, his fans are truly grateful.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Imagining the York pantomime without Berwick is something
0:57:05 > 0:57:07we don't actually like to think about.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Oh, Berwick is absolutely wonderful.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12He actually makes the show. I mean, we know he writes it
0:57:12 > 0:57:16and he directs it, but he is just a superman.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20Berwick's now in his 33rd year as dame.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25Let's work this out, that's over 2,000 shows
0:57:25 > 0:57:28and more than 30,000 costume changes.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Surely it's starting to lose its appeal by now.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34- Do you still love it? - Love it!
0:57:34 > 0:57:37- Can't wait to get the dress on? - Can't...
0:57:37 > 0:57:40I can't, and it's not a dress.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42- A frock.- It's not a frock.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44- It's a frock.- It's not drag. - It's a costume.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46It's a costume, thank you.
0:57:46 > 0:57:47Very good.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52Well, if Berwick ever does retire, I might just know someone
0:57:52 > 0:57:55who can step into his shoes, and his costumes.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Being transformed into a dame, however briefly, has given me
0:58:04 > 0:58:06a glimpse of what makes her tick.
0:58:06 > 0:58:12She's ridiculous, absurd, vain, subversive and rude.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15But she's always game, and she's always warm,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18and always, always, uniquely British.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22Our world would be so much poorer without her.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25# There is nothin' like a dame
0:58:25 > 0:58:29# Nothin' in the world
0:58:29 > 0:58:32# There is nothin' you can name
0:58:32 > 0:58:35# That is anything like a dame... #
0:58:35 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd