Today’s interview is with a legend of children’s television for many of us growing up in the 70s & 80s – Peter Duncan!
We chatted about his career in general and specifically about Panto Online, which he founded during the pandemic to create filmed pantomime.
After three regular releases in 2020-2022, you can now buy them all as a package to enjoy without heading out into the cold!
Check out my reviews of Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Pantoland.
So let’s talk about Panto Online – the three releases are coming back as a package?
Yes, that’s the idea. There were good responses from families and individuals to the films we made, it’s a nice little seasonal thing to stream the shows. Some schools picked it up, too. It’s like having a personalised streaming service in a short window, and people respond well to that.
You have panto in your blood, with your family?
Yes, my parents did about 14 years at Tunbridge Wells at the old Opera House, putting pantos on there and in surrounding areas. So I’ve moved back slightly towards the territory I was in, or watched as a kid, when they worked in summer seasons. I’ve inherited the panto gene!
And you’ve worked in panto yourself?
I did a bit in the 70s, and then at the end of the 80s. Jack and the Beanstalk and things like that. Fairly constant from 2000 onwards after I had done a run of musical theatre shows. Then producing and putting on shows for 30 years before moving into film when the pandemic hit.
Was it easy to set up a filmed panto in one location [Jack and the Beanstalk, 2020]?
I had a lot of help from family on the admin side and on the catering! It was important that people could still get their panto kick and because it was becoming increasingly difficult to go anywhere or do anything with the theatres and businesses closing, I decided to do something at home.
So we got a group together to film and edit the show, and got it out for that Christmas in cinemas, In that first year there wasn’t much competition from other places.
Do you like to play the grotesque? [Peter was the Dame in Jack and the Beanstalk, one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella and Dame Dolly in Pantoland].
To be honest, I started in heroic parts like Jack and then was employed as the comedy man, depending on how producers saw me. Is he funny, or is he the hero? I played the baddie in a lot of pantos as well, but I suppose the Dame encompasses all of those things depending on the character.
Do you like being in charge of the panto on film?
I always like being in charge of my own ideas, It’s nice when other people want to work for you. An example would be when I made the films of the kids going around the world for the BBC.
I just went and did them, they put out the first one and then we had follow-up series with Channel 5 and Sky. A self-grown idea like the pantos, just saying ‘I want to do this.’
So I get the kit, I do the filming and the post-production. It’s 20 years since we did the travels on TV. It’s harder now persuading people to do a reflective thing when the world is now a lot more extreme. It’s fulfilling to have an idea and make it happen with the help of others.
So it makes the world nicer somehow?
Well, now I’m living in the Sussex countryside, being part of nature and watching what’s happening to it. Your whole psychology changes.
So inspiring young kids to feel that they can be part of that world’s words about creativity and being a good communicator and enthusiastic is all part of it.
You’ve always had an affinity for working with children, with Blue Peter and your work as Chief Scout and as a Patron of British Youth Music Theatre.
Yes, I feel very comfortable about kids really, whether being silly and funny or talking about the things I’ve done. A lot of my work has been related to young people.
I‘m interested in creativity and skill, like the older kids who perform at BYMT. They are outgoing and really good.
And you’ve worked in musical theatre as well.
Yes, in Barnum and some other big ones in the 90s.
I grew up being a musical type person because of my parents and did bits and pieces, but never imagined ending up playing all these big league musicals.
It’s like being the lead in Shakespeare, carrying the show with whatever character you’re playing. It’s really fulfilling.
So, what does panto mean to you? If you had to condense it into one sentence?
Not in just one! I think because they’ve fables and generally, it’s about goodness and wit. It’s unique to some degree to our culture and explains the myriad of humanity.
It shows that the hopefully good triumphs over evil, that if you can stay in touch with your emotions, you can win. There are bad guys, selfish and greedy people in there, a mix of all humanity.
And I grew up enjoying the slapstick of it, watching my parents. It does have an influence. The best thing about being in a show is when kids and their parents all laugh. Then you know you have something that really works.
So back to Panto Online. It’s streaming as a package this year?
Yes, so last year we tried to do Treasure Island as ‘make your own film’, but it was a bit complicated to get together. You can make a film on your phone now, it doesn’t need to be high tech. We wanted people to use backdrops and green screens.
Anyway, it probably needed a bigger promotion to get people engaged and kids are so busy with other stuff.
So this year it is a streaming package of the three films you can buy to watch at home, and it will also be in schools and care homes. Not in cinemas this time as it is hard to get a slot and compete with the big studios.
What I’ve done with a small team is unusual, really, and I still have ideas bubbling under. They’ve got to be collaborative, though, which doesn’t always work.
I made my own films and distributed them to the cinema, so I’ve done that now. Not just sticking a camera at the back of the stalls and filming a show, but shooting it like a film while keeping the theatre part of it.
Do you have a preference of theatre or film?
They are very different things, but I do miss the shows I did when I was younger, like the commercial tours.
There’s always the dilemma of do you fulfil your dream and do a show that will make you successful, or do you take on bigger themes and write something like that, less commercial.
Your last pitch for your pantos?
It’s the easiest way to get your panto blast this year!
The best thing is you don’t have to.plan a trip out, you can watch anytime as a family and be entertained.
If you’re a school we have educational resources and workshops that go with it.
You can even book me for a personal shout-out filmed and sent to you!
Panto Online is available now from https://www.pantoonline.co.uk/