Sheffield Lyceum pantomime: Benidorm TV star Janine Duvitski sprinkles her fairy magic on Sleeping Beauty

Janine is on stage at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield in the pantomime Sleeping Beauty, playing Fairy Moonbeam.

She said: “It’s quite good fun. I’m always a bit nervy reacting at the beginning. I don’t know what’s coming next! I think we’ll have fun now we’re up and running.”

Janine, who played married swinger Jacqueline Stewart in the hit TV show set in a Spanish hotel and also starred in comedies One Foot in the Grave and Waiting for God, said she had only recently returned to pantos.

“I didn’t for years and years, just the last couple of years, but not last year. The year before I was at the Palladium. It was Goldilocks and the Three Bears and I was Mummy Bear there. I did do a fairy before in Sunderland.

“Years ago in rep (repertory theatre) I did the panto and we did a whole season of rep. I also did the Royal Shakespeare Company panto when they’ve done one years ago.”

Coming to Sheffield this Christmas means a festive change for Janine and her family. She is married to actor Paul Bentall and they have four grown-up children and grandchildren.

"We’re going to go to my son’s in Newcastle for Christmas. I’ve got an excuse not to be doing all the cooking! I do love Christmas and we can do it all together. All the other kids are coming up there.

"I live in London and we all usually spend it together.”

She will head to Newcastle after the Christmas Eve show and be back on stage for two shows on Boxing Day.

"Probably some of the family will come and watch those shows. My grandchildren are definitely coming. My grandson is five and he didn’t want to come because he worries about stuff. He’ll be worried about the bad fairy Carabosse.

"I’m trying to tell him it isn’t real and to not try and get too involved and that it’ll be fun. Carabosse is a friend of mine.”

The cast, led by Dame Damian Williams, try to create Christmas magic in their dressing rooms but Janine said she’s been slow to decorate hers. “I was trying to get first night presents and I’m always doing that at the last minute.

“My dressing room looks like an absolute tip. Damian’s is lovely and he brings me a little glass of port. I’ve bought him a bottle of port as his first night present. His room is lovely, all with everything put up.

“At the moment mine is full of wrapping paper and carrier bags! I’ll get sorted so I can sip my port a bit more elegantly.”

Janine, whose grandma was born in Attercliffe, added: “Sheffield is really lovely with the Christmas market. It feels very festive when you go out of the theatre and you’re right in the middle of that, more so than in London. There’s lots of nice bits there but they’re more dispersed.”

Janine said that Dame Damian was a key reason for coming to Sheffield. “I met Damian when we did the Benidorm tour. He went off from it to do the panto because he wouldn’t miss the panto.

“We had quite a lot to do together in that show. He’s such a lovely bloke and so funny on and off stage. It was one of the main drivers for me coming here.

How do I get tickets for the Lyceum panto?

“They asked me before and that’s when I got the one in London. Because that’s near home I went with that. I was very pleased to be asked again.

“Damian was texting me, going ‘we’ll have a lot of fun’. He was a big part of it. I feel really safe when I’m on stage with him. If anything goes wrong, he’ll have a funnier gag than in the script.

"He makes me laugh and I like working with him very much. It’s a lovely company. All the young ones, from the young stars to the ensemble, they work so hard.

“They’re all so good at singing and dancing, I feel a bit of a fraud. I’m not very good at any of those things. They’re a really lovely company.”

Janine said she’d love to go back to Benidorm, where she had a great time in 10 series – she even bought a house down the coast where she lived during filming and goes out there to visit writer Derren Litten.

Sleeping Beauty is at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield until January 3. Book at the box office, call 0114 249 6000 or visit shefffieldtheatres.co.uk

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