David Robbins - Interview by Jasmine Storm

David Robbins was born to play a dame. This year he is playing Dame Betty Barnum in Goldilocks and The Three Bears at Milton Keynes Theatre from 6 December 2025 to 11 January 2026.

JS: Thank you for speaking with me.  My first question is what do you love about panto?  Do you love the audience participation and what is your favourite panto? Because you’ve done a lot of panto, haven’t you?

DR: I have done a lot of panto.  I have.  I’ve been doing panto for so long, but that’s not in a bad way as every year it just keeps getting better and better.  I think its to do with the people that you work with.  Enjoying panto for me is about the people I’m on stage with.  Especially people like Brian and Lucy, as I’ve worked with them a few times.  I’ve known Lucy since she was little.  It’s just the whole panto experience that I’ve done for so long, that even for Christmas I couldn’t envisage a Christmas without panto!

JS: Panto is Christmas!

DR: Exactly!  Just like turkey is Christmas...Well…unless you’re a vegetarian.  But you know what I mean.  Audience participation…is a weird one because every time is different.  You can’t be guaranteed that someone’s going to shout something.  I think it always keeps it fresh because you can never tell what an audience is going to do.

JS: I think that’s what I missed most in the pandemic, was the audience interactions with the cast.  I was searching online for old pantos on you tube.

DR: There were a couple.

JS: There were.

DR: It’s bizarre there weren’t more out there.  My favourite panto?  It depends on the character I am playing.  Because I would like to say that an ugly sister is one of my favourites.  That’s because not only are you playing a dame character but you are also playing the baddie.  It just takes that extra element and adds to it.  Now I love Widow Twanky, I love playing her just because of the way the character is set up, and so involved in the story of Aladdin.  Then Goldilocks, this version is just so fresh and new, I am able to be wacky, I am able to bring whatever I want to this.

JS: It’s exciting

DR: It is. I did the show last year with Brian.  And to come back and do it again is brilliant because there were so many things I found to add so much more to the character.  You say how do you characterise it?  I don’t. It just sort of happens.  It grows itself.  Once I got the make-up, wig, heels, I become Dame Betty Barnum.  It’s difficult to describe, but this one is something different.  

JS: I am really looking forward to seeing it.  So, tell me about your costumes.  I hear you design all your own costumes.  Where do you get your inspiration from and do you have a favourite?

DR: Yes, I design all my own costumes.  I will come up with the design and get a basic costume made.   And then I’ll find buttons and trim and feathers and accessorise it until its as over the top as possible.  I also make all my own wigs.  And during the rest of the year when I am not in panto, I have my own wig making company and I make wigs specifically for pantomime dames.  So, its panto all year round in the workshop.  And I make all my own hats and accessories, feathers – the bigger the better.  As for a favourite?  Its difficult.  I used to have a favourite.  When I used to play the ugly sister, I had an allsorts dress which had massive liquorice allsorts all over it. And that used to be my favourite. But now its so difficult, Because I’ve designed them all myself.

JS: You love them all. They’re your children.

DR: Yes, they are!  It’s so bizarre.  And they have so much money spent on them. Its like your own wardrobe.  You haven’t just got one favourite.  You’ve got a few favourites.  But with me, it’s like everyone is my favourite because you don’t get to wear them every day.  I don’t go down to Tesco in one of my frocks.  I only wear them during panto when I am on stage.  The most favourite thing is me being able to wear them because each one is a feat in itself.

JS: I think you should have a photo shoot in Tesco.  Tesco’s would be on board with that.

DR: yeah, I am sure they would.

JS: Do you feel a panto dame differs from a drag queen?  With the increased popularity of drag queens, do you feel its beneficial to panto dames now people are more accepting?

DR: yes – its very different.  I would never put the two together.  Its so hard to describe. It really is.  Whenever I am playing Dames, I am not a woman, I’m not a female impersonator and I am not technically a drag queen.  I am a man in a dress.  Its recently dawned on me that its very much clown like because the whole pantomime dame thing has come from commedia dell arte.  So, if we are going that sort of route, then the dame is more like a clown and the things I am able to do with a dame would never ever be derogatory towards women, so I am never playing a woman or being a woman, I am a man in a dress.  If I fall over and show my bloomers, that’s funny.  If I was a woman and I fell over and showed my knickers, it might be a little non PC.  So, it’s that sort of fine line between a drag queen being more womanly, than a man in a dress.  If you said to a drag queen, ‘oh you’re just a man in a dress’ they’d probably tear your hair out.  They are so far apart.  People will say ‘you’re a man. You’re wearing a dress. You’re a drag queen’.  But it’s not at all. I think that comes through being an actor.  I am actually playing a character.  I am not playing a woman.  The character I am playing is Dame Betty Barnum.  It just so happens I wear very outrageous clothes and I run around the stage and trip up and end up with a pie in my face.

JS: I wear outrageous clothes all year round!

David and Jasmine both laugh

DR: But that’s you.  That’s your character.  That’s your personality.  That’s what you’re like.  And I think that’s the thing with dames, it becomes your personality.  You have to keep drag queens and dames completely separate because they really are.  But saying that – there are drag queens that have become panto dames themselves.  If you watch them, they play it very differently to how they were if they were a drag queen.  Notably from around this area is La Voix, he is absolutely amazing. He is brilliant.

JS: I have been reviewing La Voix for many years. I am so delighted for her now on Strictly.

DR: I’ve known La Voix for quite a few years and I used to do her hair.  She used to come round for a do every now and again.  The way that La Voix is, is very very different to seeing a drag queen circuit.  I don’t think an audience would accept a drag queen in a pantomime.  It just wouldn’t work.  You have to know the limits for your characterisation for pantomime.  And it is a niche thing.

JS: Thank you for that.  We could talk about that all day, couldn’t we?

DR: We could. We could.

JS: If you could give your younger self some advice, what would you tell them?  And do you think they would know you would be dressing up as a dame?

DR: I am not sure they would know I would be dressing up as a dame as such, they would know I would be dressing up because I’ve done it my whole life.  We always had a dressing up box, my mum was big into amateur dramatics so that followed.  I was dragged along to amateur dramatics – ha ha– I wasn’t dragged along, I went willingly!  I’ve always been dressing up.  I was always making stuff, which is that creative side.  I remember making a wig out of a mop and being a clown in some dance show I did many many moons ago.  I’ve always done it.  I don’t think my younger self would blink an eye.  It’s weird because the advice I would probably give is the advice I actually took anyway.  That is to listen and learn.  Especially with regards to being an actor.  Everybody around you, especially actors are all respecting your elders.  They’ve been there and done that.  They know what to do and you learn from that because if you come in with the attitude of, you’re the best and you know what you’re doing, you won’t get very far.  But if you accept that these people you are working with, have been doing it a long time and they know what they’re doing.  For example, Brian (Conley) comes to mind.  He knows timing.  When he is going to say something, how he is going to say it, it is all meticulously planned and scripted.  The advice I would say is listen and learn. And constantly learn. I am still learning now.

JS: Do you consider yourself an elder now?

DR: I am!!  It’s very strange because there aren’t that many at the moment.  The younger ones that are coming through are very few and far between.  As a dame its very very difficult, because a lot of people lump you in with the drag queens.  As a niche dame, you’ve got to find what’s right for you.  If you’re not willing to take on everything that embodies that character as a dame then you are not going to get the work.  A dame is very specific.  I’m getting deep again now. Its just things like that make you think.  I’ve seen newbies coming in and they feel it’s a bit more drag queen than pantomimey.  But the audience is not turned against them, but their reviews aren’t great.  You can’t be a mumsy dame character if your costume is too sexy.  My costumes are never sexy – they’re grotesque.  I would never describe my look as sexy unless there was a line in the script where there was a bit of a parody about it.  Ohhh we could go on forever… David laughs.

Advice for young people coming in, you don’t want to criticize them but a dame has been done like this for so many years and the audience don’t like change.  And I think that’s the thing.  The audience want that dame in character.  She has to be warm and giving.  You can’t come on and be stand offish.  A drag queen as a host in a club can sometimes come across as a bit bitchy, you can’t have any of that in a dame.

JS: I think we are out of time.  It’s been lovely talking to you.  I think we could have coffee and chat all day.

DR: I know.  I know.  We could. Thank you.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears tickets for Milton Keynes Theatre are available to buy now.