Award-winning actor Andy Hockley stars in his 20th pantomime at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre this festive season. A stalwart of the venue on and off the stage, there’s nowhere he’d rather be at this time of year, he tells What’s On...

Welsh actor & singer Andy Hockley moved to Coventry more than 30 years ago, with the city’s Belgrade Theatre his second home for much of that time. Having first worked there in 1982 while a theatre design student, he’s returning this Christmas to appear in a production of Sleeping Beauty - his 20th pantomime at the venue. And when he’s not treading the boards, he can regularly be found showing people to their seats or selling ice creams.

“[The Belgrade] has really become part of my life now,” he says, the soft Welsh accent still very much intact despite living in the Midlands for so long. “I’ve done 20 pantomimes since 1989, had a large chunk of time out between 2012 and 2022, when I went off to do other projects, mainly down in the West End, came back in 2022 and have been here ever since.”

Those West End projects include major musicals such as The Phantom Of The Opera, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Wicked (where he’s still its longest-serving Wizard), while in the early 1990s he also had a brief flirtation with Hollywood, appearing in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded version of Much Ado About Nothing. 

These days he’s happy to be winding down his workload, although the pantomime will always bring him back to the stage. And that’s especially true if it means working alongside Belgrade legend Iain Lauchlan, who has written, directed and starred in the annual production for more than 35 years. The duo were named Best Sisters at the 2024 UK Pantomime Association awards for their performances in Cinderella. This year’s production also features Best Villain winner Wendi Harriott, who will reprise her role as Carabosse from a version of the show at Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth. 

Craig Hollingsworth, another Belgrade regular, is back as well, for his 14th panto, playing Muddles the Jester. Iain will play Nanny Fanny McWheeze and Andy will appear as an entirely new character called Grumbleweed.

“The role I’m playing hasn’t existed in any form of the play that’s ever been done before,” he says. “He’s a disgruntled gnome, the sidekick of Carabosse, the wicked fairy who curses the princess. He’s her much-put-upon, disgruntled henchman, who just happens to be a gnome.”

Given that Andy is playing a wholly new character, it’s safe to say that Iain has created a new script (“he always tries to keep it topical and up to date”) even though he’s written previous versions of the show. The reasons for doing so are more than just artistic. 

“Carabosse has always had at least one henchman - she used to have two. The first Sleeping Beauty I did in the mid-1990s with Iain, they were two Cockney wide boys called Duck and Dive. Nowadays, budget restrictions mean cast sizes have got smaller, orchestra sizes have got smaller, and so there’s only one henchman this time.”

Budget sizes have certainly changed during Andy’s time working on Belgrade pantomimes: “The first one I did had a principal cast of about 14, plus chorus members and a seven-piece band. This year’s show has a three-piece band and an entire company of about 11.”
This is where Iain’s experience - alongside a highly skilled team of designers, choreographers and musical arrangers - really comes in, ensuring that the show still ticks all the boxes for a family night out.

“Iain just gets it. That’s why he’s had such longevity and built up such a legacy at the Belgrade. He does it for families - he doesn’t do pantos that are heavy for adults and full of innuendo. He writes for a family audience and understands the breadth of what he’s dealing with. That’s why he’s still there after 30-odd years.

”That breadth means embracing new technology (“that’s the biggest difference performance-wise”) as well as knowing, and reflecting, what youngsters are tuned in to. This year, that includes nods to AI (“Iain’s character is a nanny from Scotland, so it’s called Och Aye”) and animated musical phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters (“my granddaughter’s six and she’s obsessed with them”). It’s an element of the show that Andy admits often goes over his head.

“There was one year we included a song from the Barbie movie - it was called I Am Ken or something. I’d never heard it before in my life, but it was part of the overture. When the orchestra started to play it, within the first half dozen notes, the kids, especially young kids at the school shows, absolutely erupted because they recognised the song. I didn’t know what was happening and had to have it explained to me.”

That disconnect arguably wouldn’t have been so profound 30 years ago, when there were fewer TV channels and no internet, so it’s clearly more and more of a challenge to stay abreast of things that resonate with younger audiences.

“Absolutely. And it’s coping with their attention spans as well now. What I’ve found is that over that time period, scenes have become a little shorter, just because children’s attention spans have got shorter. It’s through no fault of their own; it’s just the society they’re being brought up in - looking at stuff on computers, tablets, smartphones, watching YouTube videos and so on.”

That said, it’s clear that Andy still revels in performing for youngsters and families, and even more so in a city that he has come to love and call home.

“Because of where Coventry is geographically, it’s a great focal point for families that have become dispersed to get back together at Christmas. And one of the main things they do is come and see the Belgrade panto. It’s become such a great tradition and such a huge part of family Christmases, and you really get that feeling.

“The one thing you do pick up on, if you’re performing in the same place regularly - which I’ve been lucky enough to do, building up a relationship with the audience - is the generational thing.”

That ‘generational thing’ means Andy regularly meets people who have grown up watching or working with him, and who are now bringing their own children to shows - which is where Andy’s borderline photographic memory comes in handy.

“I remember them better than I remember my lines, which is a bit worrying!”  

Speaking of which, he’s a real fan of the way pantomimes develop throughout a run, acknowledging how Iain often picks up on, and adds in, nods to topical news stories. He also tweaks things that work and get the best laughs, even if they come from actors making mistakes or corpsing on stage.

“Panto is always very fluid - from the first read-through to the last night, it’ll change immeasurably. That’s part of the fun. Things will get dropped or something will come up in the news that we’ll bring in. If someone corpses and it gets a laugh, then we might work it in, but only as long as the audience shares the joke. Ultimately, it’s all about giving them a great night out.”

Feature by Steve Adams

Sleeping Beauty shows at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from Wednesday 19 November to Saturday 3 January