Rikki Stone enjoying his Bognor Regis debut in panto

Beauty and the Beast is running at the Alexandra Theatre at the Regis Centre from Wednesday, December 7-Sunday, January 1 (tickets on alexandratheatre.co.uk), with Rikki slipping into the role of Lumiere – though not a candlestick Lumiere.

In this much more modern version of the tale, Lumiere – fulfilling the Buttons comedy role – will be a servant to the beast.

“This is my first time in Bognor. I've always moved around everywhere. I do panto every year and this is where I've ended up this year and I'm very excited.”

Rikki, who is from Romford in Essex, said: “I have been doing panto professionally since I was 18.

"I'm 34 now but I started doing panto when I was ten or 11. I was doing theatre with my local theatre in Ilford, doing children's roles and juvenile roles and that's also where I did my first professional panto. It is just where I started.

"My mum is an actress and runs a dance school. She has done panto every year but now she does choreography but I learned everything I know from her. And then I went off and trained at Arts Educational in Chiswick but really my excitement comes from getting on the stage and doing the work. I just really enjoy being out there. I do think you learn from doing it.

"Panto is my favourite show of the whole year. You spend the whole year looking forward to it. It's just such a fun thing to do, such a fun piece of theatre that has to be accessible to everyone and I love the fact that you've got two prongs to the attack. You have got all the jokes for the children, and you've got the more innuendo type jokes for the adults, the more tongue in cheek type stuff. I think the comedy is a really important part of panto. It is a great opportunity to make people laugh but you've also got to have the magic, the fact that the children believe in the story, that they believe that it is really happening.”

The show offers the chance to meet the beautiful Belle and her crazy inventor mother as they embark on an adventure which sees them both taken prisoner by the evil Beast in the castle. Will Belle be rescued in time? Will the Beast find true love before the final petal falls from his rose bush? Will silly Lumi ever find his socks? So many questions… only time will tell, the cast promise.

“Lumiere is the Buttons role. He is not a candlestick in this version. I am a servant to the beast and but it's very much about the comedy. He is an electrician to the beast but he is not paid very well so he comes into town to do the odd jobs. At first the beast starts off as quite a bad guy but he's just had a hard time and Lumiere wants to help the beast to find the love in his life. Actually Lumiere is the first one to suggest that he meets Belle…”

Beauty and the Beast is running at the Alexandra Theatre at the Regis Centre until Sunday, January 1 (alexandratheatre.co.uk),