Biggins calls for 2020 panto season to be scrapped

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 2mo

Panto legend Christopher Biggins calls for this year's shows to be called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Panto legend Christopher Biggins has called for this year's panto season to be scrapped amid the coronavirus pandemic.

All live theatre shows are currently on hold in the UK due to the lockdown, although there are suggestions that the entertainment industry could start to get back on its feet later this summer.

Biggins, 71, is a firm fixture on the panto circuit and is booked to star in Jack and the Beanstalk in Dartford this Christmas, but believes that it may be too soon to perform to live audiences again.

"I honestly do believe this is the year we have to rest pantomime down and come back with a vengeance in 2021," he told The Sun.

"As a performer of my age standing on the stage in front of 1500 people sneezing and coughing and doing all sorts of things at me, I worry.

"Also, how are they going to let people into the theatres? They can't stagger them in two metres apart and they can't watch with masks on, how's that going to help the laughter?

"And we can't be two metres apart on stage. What about the poor cow in our pantomime? That's where someone is right up their arse. So we'd have to cut the cow from the show and we can't have that."

Biggins has played a vast variety of characters in panto over the years - most notably as Widow Twankey in Aladdin - and in 2017 was given a Lifetime Achievement award at The Great British Pantomime Awards.