Magic In The Air

Hove’s Keris Lea is finishing the biggest 12 months of her career by penning a new panto version of Jack and the Beanstalk

- Duncan Hall

Christmas has always been about pantomime for writer and actor Keris Lea.

Her father was the theatre manager at Cardiff’s New Theatre and was responsible for writing and directing the annual Christmas gala.

So Dad was naturally the first person Hove-based Keris contacted when she was offered the chance to write the second E3 Production pantomime at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.

“Doing a show at Christmas is in my blood,” she says sitting backstage at Jack and the Beanstalk’s official launch.

“For a lot of people a pantomime is often the first time a child will go to the theatre – so it’s important to get it right.”

The 42-year-old’s role as Fairy Nature almost acts as a bookend to what has been a pretty spectacular year in her career. In December she played the Fairy Godmother in E3’s inaugural Brighton panto Cinderella. But as she trod the boards it was with the knowledge that her life was going to change thanks to a BBC One primetime Saturday night show. The Sundaes, the cabaret trio she founded in 2010 with the support of E3’s David Hill, had performed on the talent show All Together Now hosted by Spice Girl Geri Horner and Rob Beckett. And as Keris granted Cinders her greatest wish she knew the flamboyant trio had made it all the way to the final, finishing in the top five.“It had all been filmed at the end of the year, but it wasn’t going to be aired until January,” says Keris. “We couldn’t tell anybody. It was so difficult to keep quiet!”