By Grace Hatchell
I have always maintained that if you’re going to make a major career change, you might as well do it in an enormous frock.
After 14 years working around the country as a pantomime comic, Blackpool radio presenter Scott Gallagher is finally doing precisely that.
This Christmas, he’ll be swapping breakfast radio for Widow Twankey as he makes his pantomime Dame debut in Aladdin at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton.
New Brighton, incidentally, is on the Wirral. I mention this because the Floral Pavilion is a new addition to my postal round and I did briefly have to consult the map. Theatre Village gets around, you know.
Gallagher is certainly no newcomer to pantomime. He began performing in panto at the age of four, later spent more than a decade entertaining families at Butlin’s, Pontins and Haven, and has subsequently appeared at venues around the country, including Blackpool Opera House.
But there has apparently been one glaring omission from the CV.
He has never been the Dame.
That changes when Aladdin arrives at the Floral Pavilion from 5 December 2026 until 3 January 2027.
Gallagher said he was particularly excited because, after 14 years working as a panto comic, this would be his first opportunity to earn his “Dame wings”.
He also appears to be taking his new responsibilities seriously, announcing that it is time to get the magic carpet dry-cleaned.
Quite right too. You cannot have Widow Twankey flying around Merseyside on a grubby carpet.
He won’t be embarking upon his new career alone, because the Floral Pavilion has assembled quite the company around him.
CBBC’s James Mackenzie will play the wicked Abanazar. Mackenzie is perhaps still best remembered by a generation of viewers as the mysterious title character in Raven, the BAFTA-winning CBBC series which ran for 15 series. More recently, younger audiences may recognise him as James from CBeebies’ Molly and Mack.
Then there is Sean Jones as Wishee Washee, who really ought to know where everything is kept by now.
This will be Jones’s seventh year appearing in pantomime at the Floral Pavilion. He is particularly known for his award-winning performance as Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, while his other credits include Macbeth, Picture You Dead, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.
Taking the title role is James-Royden Lyley, whose West End credits include 9 to 5 the Musical at the Savoy Theatre and 42nd Street at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He has also appeared in CATS and Mamma Mia!.
Princess Jasmine will be played by Yna Montarde, who graduated from the Urdang Academy only last year before going straight into the UK and international tour of SIX, playing Anne Boleyn.
That is not a bad first couple of lines on the professional CV.
The production promises the traditional panto mixture of music, comedy, audience participation, spectacular staging and, naturally, a flying carpet.
The Floral Pavilion itself is an 800-plus-seat venue on New Brighton’s Marine Promenade, presenting everything from touring theatre and musicals to comedy, music, dance and family entertainment. Its annual pantomime is a particularly significant part of its programme.
Tickets for Aladdin start at £15, with performances running from 5 December 2026 until 3 January 2027. Further casting is still to be announced.
And so Grace’s postal round has officially expanded to New Brighton.
I’m just hoping nobody expects me to deliver the post by magic carpet.
Especially now Scott’s sent his to the dry cleaners.
Tickets are priced from £15 and are available from floralpavilion.com
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