Julian Clary has a love-hate relationship with pantomime.

After appearing as Dandini in this very production of Cinderella in Brighton last year, he's bringing the role to Richmond this Christmas but not without some light-hearted complaint.

"It's exhausting," he explains. "After doing 54 shows in a row you do tend to say never again.

"But I did enjoy it, and I did wish I'd done it before, especially because of the costumes and make-up, and the fact that you can mess about.

"It also tends to take care of Christmas and New Year. It's a good excuse not to go to all those parties you're expected to attend!"

It also gives Julian free rein to be the flamboyant, camp figure we know and love.

"I make a very grand entrance in a carriage drawn by two very well-built young men, and I say, hello everybody, do you know what I am?" he grins naughtily. "That's right, I'm...Dandini!"

Despite the familiar, genteel and downright camp voice, Julian's bigger than he looks on TV in both height and build and cuts a dashing figure in his exuberant costume. But an elder sister and educating monks both had a big hand in the shaping of his career.

"My first taste of theatre was going backstage with my sister Frankie Castro, who was already a dancer, seeing the costumes and flowers and wanting to do it too," he explains.

A schooling under the monks of St. Benedict's Abbey in Ealing clinched it.

"That school has got a lot to answer for in terms of my career," he says. "I was always very effeminate, which was certainly frowned upon.

"It was a good education, but everyone was expected to have the same conservative haircut and when I hit puberty I really rebelled, starting to wear make-up and things. And here I am still doing it!"

Parts in school plays and membership of the Strawberry Hill Players whetted his appetite for the bright lights further, but his spell at Goldsmith's College was the turning point.

"I really came out of my shell," he says. "It was a revelation. Everything was so liberal and everyone was having such fun. That's when I started doing proper shows."

For proper, read outrageously camp, his persona both on and off-screen from the moment he entered our homes in the early days of the Joan Collins Fan Club (not forgetting Fanny the Wonderdog). Since then, with hit shows including Sticky Moments and All Rise for Julian Clary and, more recently, It's Only TV But I Like It, he's made refined campness his very own.

However, panto is a family affair, and though Julian's certainly made his mark on this one, it's still a show for all ages.

"A lot of my jokes are adult ones, which is good and proper a big percentage of the audience is made up of adults, and we're there to entertain everyone, not just the children," he says.

"That's not to say they can't enjoy it too but I'm sure half the time they don't know what they're laughing at. It must be something in the delivery.

"I got rid of the tired old pantomime jokes the ones that make everyone groan. I hate hearing an audience groan. They're all bona fide double entendres, and they can't touch you for it!"

Richmond Theatre's panto, Cinderella, starts tonight (Thursday) and runs until January 20.

Call 8940 0088 for ticket information or to book.

By.Vienna Leigh