Just Imagine

From falling in love with ballroom dancing and sequins as a youngster to developing a passion for drama and musical theatre through school, Christian Patterson has become a well-respected performer, writer and director. Christian talks to Martin about his extensive career, his influences and his love of the panto genre.

Martin visits Imagine HQ to see exactly what happens when the company is in the midst of the panto season. The team are all very busy with panto season just around the corner. Equipment is being tested, final props such as time machines are being created, lots of things are being glittered, final costume preparations are underway and being packed in trundles and wigs are being coiffured.  Join Mar...

Graeme is a performer, choreographer, casting associate and author and this week he joins Martin on the podcast to talk about his varied career and how having worked in a huge variety of genres has helped his career to develop. He has worked with Imagine Theatre for a number of years and this year will be choreographing Aladdin at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe.

To celebrate our 40th episode we are taking a look back over some of our previous episodes to discover some of our guests first experiences of panto, favourite panto titles and why panto is so special to them as well as their most memorable moments of something going wrong!

The fabulous Sean Dodds is the regular comic for The Spa Centre panto each year and Martin caught up with him at the photoshoot for this year’s pantomime, Cinderella. Sean has worked with Spa Centre Dame JP McCue since 2014 and he talks about how important their bond is and why this helps to make the Spa Centre panto such a hit with the audience and just what it is that makes him love panto so muc...

Martin catches up with Steve and Sarah to find out what is happening now we have reached the Autumn and panto season is just around the corner. It is all go at Head Office - with the majority of marketing assets captured the marketing team are hard at work on promoting the shows, the admin team are busy working on the performance licenses following the casting of the Junior Ensemble, the ops team...

This week Martin talks to the multi-talented award-winning British Indian presenter, performer and producer Parle Patel who will be starring in Cinderella this Christmas at The Beck Theatre in Hayes. Parle and Martin discuss the strong parallels between pantomime and forms of entertainment already popular with South Asian Communities and how he hopes his role in panto can act as a bridge to introd...

This week Martin talks to AJ and Curtis Pritchard who will be starring in their second Imagine pantomime this Christmas at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall. They talk about their love of panto and performance as well as how they got into dancing  and how this has opened up so many career opportunities for them, from Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars to I'm a Celebrity, Love Island...

This week Martin talks to some of the Imagine Team about marketing and publicity. They chat about things such as how casting affects the marketing strategies, the timelines involved in marketing the show, the role of photoshoots and publicity days in gathering content to support the campaigns, the importance of artwork and branding, the growing influence of social media and the challenges of keepi...

Author of Inside the Rehearsal Room Rob Marsden returns to the podcast to discuss some of the exciting developments taking place in the pantomime world at the moment. He and Martin discuss the aims and objective of the UK Pantomime Association as well as Rob’s work on developing a Masters in Pantomime for Staffordshire University.

This week Martin is behind the scenes at one of Imagine’s Junior Ensemble auditions. He speaks to members of the Imagine Team about how the day runs and what happens after the children have been selected as well as talking to some of the children auditioning and their parents about the audition experience. 

A very different podcast this week as Simon Sladen returns to the hot seat with Martin to talk about the history of pantomime. From its beginnings in Commedia dell’arte to current trends and where it might go in the future this is a fascinating and unmissable episode for any fans of the pantomime genre.             

Over a thirty-year career Steve Power has worked with artists such as Gary Barlow, Kylie Minogue, Kim Wilde and Rick Astley as well as musical direction for numerous national theatre tours and, of course, panto! He takes time out from his hectic schedule this week to join Martin on the podcast where they talk about his varied career and he explains how the music is developed for numerous panto pro...

Jason is a man of many talents and has worked with Imagine Theatre for a number of years and this season will be taking on the role of the Director as well as playing Dame. In addition when not in pantoland he is heavily involved in training up the performers of tomorrow at Emil Dale Academy and this week he joins Martin on the podcast to talk all things panto!

Join us as Martin talks to Acting Head of Wardrobe Aaron Gibson. With around 25,000 costumes, 17 pantomimes plus numerous hires over the season the wardrobe department is a crucial part of the Imagine team and Aaron discusses with Martin just how all they manage to get so many fabulous looking costumes onto stages across the UK each season. 

This week Martin is joined by the woman with the longest job title of all at Imagine Theatre, Laura Taylor, who is Associate Producer and Head of Celebrity Casting. They discuss the process of casting celebrity names, exactly what being an Associate Producer entails, as well as Laura’s role on the board of the UK Pantomime Association and her love of the pantomime industry.

This week Martin talks to Steve and Sarah to learn how Imagine has evolved under their leadership  since  they took sole ownership of the company. They discuss the ethos of the Imagine Theatre, the highs and lows of life as panto producers as well as their own personal highlights and ambitions.

Working for a panto company people often ask “what do you do the rest of the year?” On this episode Eric talks to Martin about why we are working on panto all year, how the season comes together and the timelines involved in getting the season on, as well as how we choose songs, what informs our decisions on sets and the factors we take into account when writing our scripts. Don’t miss this fascin...

This week Martin returns to the Imagine head office to talk to some of the ops team about their roles and just how a season involving 17 pantomimes as well as numerous set and costume hires comes together. They talk about everything from hiring stage management, to making props, to the logistics of transporting so many large sets all across the country, as well as how each of them found themselves...

In the hot seat this week is Business and Marketing Director Sarah Boden. Learn how Sarah went from working in the corporate sector to being owner of one of the largest pantomime companies in the United Kingdom and just what being a Business and Marketing Director of a pantomime company entails.  

Ever wondered what a normal day in February is like at Imagine Theatre Head Office? In the next group of episodes of Just Imagine, we're going to delve into the workings of Imagine as a company.  For Episode 23, Martin takes a walk around Imagine HQ on a normal day in February, chatting to the team and finding out what we do when the curtain is down and we're preparing for our next panto...

Martin Ballard talks to members of the Imagine Theatre team about the highs, the lows, and the unique challenges of the 2021 panto season.  With all the uncertainties surrounding the ongoing pandemic 2021 was a season unlike any other and the team discuss the various issues that they encountered and the way the company and the productions had to adapt to ever changing circumstances in a heartfelt...

Laura Taylor is the guest on this festive edition of the podcast. She talks to Martin about her extensive career in the panto world, including some of the fascinating people she has worked with, and they even find the time to pull a few Christmas crackers! 

Compared to Aretha Franklin by the legendary Tom Jones and Bette Midler by Louis Walsh, Barbara Bryceland’s amazing career has led to her appearing on both The Voice and The X-Factor and she has recently been spending the festive season in her home-town panto at FTH Theatre in Falkirk.

From class clown to actor, writer and director and one of Scotland’s top dames, Fraser Boyle, joins Martin on the podcast this week to talk about where his love for panto comes from, the characters that influence his dame and his excitement at being back on the stage in Kilmarnock this Christmas.