After over 20 years in show business, impressionist and panto favourite Ben Nickless returns to Shrewsbury, with the very last night of This Is Me. Ben spoke to What's On about the show, and a few favourite moments from a career on the stage...

Your Variety Show ‘This is Me’ is coming to Shrewsbury - When did you first have the idea?
It was off the back of Britain's Got Talent. By the time I'd done BGT, I'd already got quite a lot of stuff in the diary, so the following year I started putting the dates in. It's basically what I do - I'm a variety act. I do stand up, singing, loads of impressions… I've always done a show that’s suitable for families - my career has been summer seasons and pantomimes - so it's my chance to do this little tour. We've done loads of dates and this is the last one, so we've saved the best till last!

What can your Shrewsbury audience expect from the show?
You can expect a bit of everything! It's mainly comedy. There's music in there - I've got a band with me. I've got a great special guest, Jon Udry, who's hilarious. He does the first half, I do the second half. He's one of the funniest people, who's as funny offstage as he is on stage. He’s there to keep me entertained all day! We have a good laugh - you'll love Johnny, he's brilliant.

There's going to be loads of impressions in there as well. In the BGT semi-final I did the song This Is Me from The Greatest Showman - I just chucked in loads of impressions. I got an incredible amount of votes, and I won the semi-final. We called the show This Is Me, and the song’s going to be in there at some point…

There's something for everybody - just as you'd expect in a pantomime. There's a bit that should go over your kids' heads, so it's more for mums and dads but there's definitely plenty for the youngsters as well, and it’s just a great night for all the family, and the people of Shrewsbury. I did two pantomimes in Shrewsbury in 2006 and 2008 at the music hall, and we had such a great time. My grandparents' family are from Shropshire as well so I used to go and visit some holidays when I was kid so I’ve got many happy memories there.

Speaking of impressions - what’s your favourite character impression to perform?
I get asked this all the time… Joe Pasquale is one of the very first impressions I did, and it's my wife's favourite impression. When I did BGT, Joe's daughter messaged me, and said “That's the best impression I've ever heard of my dad!” I think back in the day Fred Spencer was that impression that every impressionist did, and I think Joe's one of those impressions that everyone does now, but when his daughter's reached out and said that I thought, “I'll take that!” I'll do a few singing impressions, I do my Take That impression… I love doing Ozzy Osbourne - he's one of my favourites.

Shrewsbury is a place that’s close to your heart - do you have any memories from performing here?
I said to my wife “I could live here”, I think it's such a beautiful town. I'm good friends with Eric Smith who obviously did 50,000 pantomimes in Shrewsbury, and we did a couple together, so I've been to see Eric a couple of times. 

When I got offered the pantomime in 2006, I remember telling my Grandad. It was quite a nice moment. My Grandad came to watch the show, he was at the stage door afterwards and he just cried - I thought something had happened! It wasn't a bit of a tear in the eye, it was proper crying. It's been an emotional experience for my Grandad, going back to where he is from, and some of his family would come and see the show. It meant a lot to him, when he saw me, it brought out the tears. That's one memory I will always have.

How do you go about creating a show that is suitable for anyone aged 9 to 99?
It's got some cheeky stuff, but nothing blue! I think it's the hardest comedy to do. When I was a kid there was loads of comedy on TV - we're going back to before I was born, but I was still a fan of Tommy Cooper and Morecambe & Wise, which was great family entertainment. When I was growing up it was more like Cannon & Ball, Michael Barrymore, Brian Conley, you know Bobby Davro, the Krankies, who I got to meet - later on in life we became good mates.

I don't touch anything political - I'm not satire, I'm just daft, stupid, comedy. There is a little bit of cheek in there, but I've been in the business for nearly 25 years now and you learn - sometimes the hard way! I think I've certainly done it long enough now to know what I can and can't get away with… I love playing to the family audience. I love seeing the kids' faces, I love seeing Grandma and Grandad's faces, and everyone in between. Just how many times do you go and watch a show with all your family? It's usually a show that's made more for the kids, maybe more for the adults, but this hopefully is for everybody.

I try to do some cartoon impressions for the kids, and some impressions like Joe Pasquale that the mums and dads and grandads and grandmas would get. It's hard finding impressions that everybody knows these days, because on TV, how many channels are there now? Plus Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, YouTube… Finding people that everybody knows is the hard bit!

Do you enjoy improvising, or do you prefer to work with a solid script?
I'm not very good at a script! In pantomime, I'll definitely say something, I'll never leave you… but I always find that learning the scripts is the hardest bit. With this, it's my show. I won't get in trouble! I can say what I want to a certain extent. There's a structure, so I know that I'm gonna start with that, I'm gonna finish with that, and these routines can happen. The Band’s there with me, so they need to know what's going on, and then in between you just get there somehow… It's all good fun, and it makes it fresh and live as well, which is great for both the audience and for me. I think if I did the exact same every night, I'd find that quite tiring, whereas if there's that bit of freedom, it's a buzz.

You’re a firm favourite in Panto - have you ever had any panto mishaps?
I remember had one kid - very young and naive of me - there was this one kid that he just kept heckling. It's easier to put an adult down, than it is to put a kid down, so I can deal with adults… I was in Rotherham and this kid just wouldn't give up, to the point where I went into the audience. His mum and dad said “He's here, he’s here!” For some reason, I went all the way up to the back and I said “Come here you!” and I picked him up and put him on my shoulders, all the way down these steps and I put him outside, and shut the door! I looked at the cast and everyone was laughing on stage - they're in this freeze scene, so they weren't supposed to move, but you could see their shoulders shaking. Our company manager, who was also the dame, he had a look of thunder on his face like, “What have you just done, and how do I get out of this!” 

We did the song sheet where you get kids on stage at the end, and he was one of those kids - so he came back on. His favourite part of the show was when I took him outside, so I think we kind of covered it! That was my second panto, third maybe and I was in my early 20s. 

Have you got a favourite person who you’ve performed with on stage?
I've been very lucky, I've worked with some great people. Most recently I've done the panto in Manchester with Jason Manford. It was Peter Pan - he was Hook and I was Smee. Obviously he's top of the bill, and it was my fourth year at Manchester. There's a little bit of concern that you've got two Comics going into a show. I'd not heard anything about Jason, but sometimes you work with other Comics and they don't like anybody else getting the laughs… Jason was absolute dream. This was his first pantomime, and he said “You know what you’re doing - just tell me what you want me to do, and what you want me to say.” He had his own bit of stand up, and stuff like that, but we just got on! There's a scene that we just used to make each other laugh every night. Then we were back with Jack and the Beanstalk in Manchester last year, and it was pretty much a similar scene. We just generally get on, and we make each other laugh, and it's the easiest job in the world, because I'm getting paid to have a laugh with a mate.

Working with the Hoff was an incredible experience -he’s the most unrehearsed person… He was out there, and just said what he wants - which is normally me! Then there's two of us just completely ad-libbing, because he didn't know what he was supposed to say, and I don't remember his lines… We just ad-libbed and had a great time - he's another one that was great fun, and someone I'd love to work with again. I've been very lucky!

Shrewsbury will be the final date of This Is Me - what’s next in your performance calendar?
I'm off to Clacton to host the summer show over there, then I'm doing some hotels, we're doing cabaret nights, then I'm doing pantomime in Manchester again - in Cinderella, playing Buttons which is my favourite role, so I'm very excited about that. Next year there's a few things starting to come in - nothing's confirmed for next year but already starting to look like it'll be a busy year again!

I'm still hopeful to do some more TV as well. I've got an idea which I've written for a sitcom about two comedians - ideally I’d love my mate Jason. I've had a little chat with him - I can't really say anymore than that, but it would be great to get that off at some point next year, but he's the busiest guy in the world. If he's not doing his own standup tour, he’s doing a musical or he’s doing a TV show, so to fit in with his plans is just ridiculous - but you never know.

Ben Nickless brings This Is Me plays to Theatre Severn on Friday 10 May.