CityLife

Another Coliseum Fine Time

It may still only be November, but panto time is with us once more – oh yes it is! As usual, the Oldham Coliseum presents the first panto of the season with Dick Whittington, written by and starring panto veteran Fine Time Fontayne. 

  With a name like that you’d think he was a drop-out from the good old days of music hall but, he tells me, he’s not quite that old. “I started my showbiz career in folk clubs doing a Punch And Judy Show,” he laughs.    “I just thought it sounded cool to have a descriptive name and it seems to have stuck.”    While qualifying as a drama teacher, doing Theatre In Education and performing classical roles for the popular Northern Broadsides Company, Fine Time also studied the history of pantomime.   “It’s an amalgamation of the old medieval mystery plays, with the triumph of good over evil and bits from the European commedia dell’arte with Shakespearean rhyming couplets thrown in.    “I’m also a qualified teacher so, over the years when times were hard, that’s also helped keep the wolf from the door.”   A mixture of roles in telly, radio, film and theatre brought the Yorkshire-born actor to this area, and appearances at Contact Theatre in Manchester, the Bolton Octagon and the Oldham Coliseum, where for the last four years he has played the dame.   “I love everything about panto. We weren’t a showbiz family – far from it.    “Dad was a miner, near Barnsley, and saved up to take me to my first panto at the Sheffield Lyceum, which starred Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy.    “I queued at the stage door for his autograph and when he took the gun that he’d used in all his films out of his holster and twirled it around, I was thrilled to bits!”   Since then, Fine Time has written and directed 13 pantomimes around the country – but he is determined he won’t be wearing his director’s hat this time.    Sounding just a little bit like his bossy panto character, Saucy Sarah Suet The Cook, he laughingly explains.    “This particular panto is based on the legend that young Dick Whittington heard church bells telling him to return to London where he really did become Lord Mayor.    “Kevin Shaw, the Coliseum’s artistic director, is directing the show and I’ve told him I won’t be interfering.    “I’ve enough on my plate with writing it, appearing in it and having umpteen fantastic costume changes.”   Before he rushed off for yet another costume fitting, Fine Time explains.    “As usual Celia Perkins is in charge of design and we have the most wonderful back-stage team here who make the scenery, props and the fabulous costumes.    “Indeed our costume designer is so dedicated that when she fitted me for my first outrageous costume she burst into tears because it was exactly how she’d imagined.   “The Coliseum’s already won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Family Entertainment and is renowned for producing a truly traditional pantomime.    “I promise you – this year will be no exception.”   Dick Whittington, Oldham Coliseum, tomorrow to January 14, 2012 (0161 624 2829, coliseum.org.uk).