He's the grand dame of panto

BBC Radio Leicester's Martin Ballard spends about six weeks a year wearing women's clothing. It's because he's become the county's favourite pantomime dame, performing about 70 shows this Christmas – usually twice a day – at Loughborough Town Hall.

Loughborough's panto is always a smash hit with kids, not least because the writing team of Iain Lauchlan and Will Brenton were the creators of The Tweenies and Hi 5.

Martin Ballard has swapped his microphone and studio for a stage

This year it's Beauty and the Beast and, although the story is more well-known as a Disney musical these days, there's still plenty of traditional panto in store, says Martin.

"I've done most of the panto stories but this was new to me," he said.

"There are elements which make it more like musical theatre because it's much more story-driven, where panto is traditionally fairly loose on the story. The dame is an added character in this one which creates a lot more pressure for me.

"But there are lovely songs, lots of slapstick, plenty of fun and banter with the audience, and some real "wow" elements which I'm not going to give away!

"We've got great costumes and an extravagant set, almost too big for the theatre, but the crew have worked really hard to make it work and the audiences are loving it.

"And with lots of daytime performances there's plenty of schools in so we're having a great time because the kids are."

An audience full of children is certainly a far cry from his regular listeners at Radio Leicester – where Martin now presents a wide variety of shows.

"I do a lot of sports shows as well as fill in for other presenters, so I do the gamut from breakfast to drivetime.

"But during panto season I do take time off. In previous years we've sometimes done three shows a day, but even with two it's just not possible to do radio and the panto. Panto is enormous fun but it's quite physically demanding, just the opposite to radio where you're at a computer sitting on your backside all day."

Info

Beauty and the Beast is at Loughborough Town Hall until January 10. Details on 01509 231914 or