King's panto star Andy Gray is looking forward to seeing the City Lights this Christmas

"I feel good, everything is hunky dory with me health-wise, and for a while I was so glad to be working, so I'm grand," says Edinburgh's favourite panto dafty, Andy Gray.

Andy Gray as Buttons

Like his sidekick Allan Stewart, Andy had been snapped up to join the cast of the Milton Keynes' panto this year, following the shelving of Sleeping Beauty at the King’s until 2021. The curtain failed to rise on Milton Keynes too when the Covid-19 regulations tightened last week.

"I was just getting used to Milton Keynes but I've now escaped and am back home in Perth," says Andy, who returned to the King's spectacular in 2019 after a year away battling blood cancer.

Consequently, if anyone had good reason to be nervous about playing to audiences, albeit in lesser numbers, during the current pandemic, you might imagine it would be the 60-year-old actor, but as we talk it becomes evident that’s not the case at all, thanks to precautions put in place by the show’s producers. So, could Andy be the only person ever to enjoy a Covid-19 test?

Andy Gray as Buttons

"It was so strict, we had a 'Covid Guardian', got a test when we started and had another two were planned. I found them quite enjoyable," he chuckles mischievously, adding, "The guy who took the swab did say to me, before he stuck the thing up my nose, 'Do you have any problems with your nose?'

"I said, 'Well, it's a bit bigger than I hoped it would be but apart from that...'

“He just looked at me and said, 'I didn't mean that.' He laughs.

"But it's actually quite nice to have a test. I'm a regular visitor to the hospital just now, so it's reassuring to know that everyone in the same room as you has also tested negative for Coronavirus."

Andy Gray on stage in Goldilocks with Allan Stewart, Gillian Parkhouse and Jordan Young

The year past has been difficult for everyone, but Andy reflects that having gone through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in the not too distant past, he was perhaps better prepared for lockdown and isolation than many.

"This sounds odd, but for me, because when I was ill I was isolated quite a lot, I was kind of used to it. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park, but of course I was shielding so I did miss people, but I was very lucky because I have a house with a garden where I spend a lot of time.

"The main thing I have missed during all this is contact with people. Zoom is great and Facetime is great but I've only seen my grand-daughter Anna a handful of times this year as they're in Glasgow and have been in Level 4. So that has been difficult. Thank goodness, for WiFi, if we didn't have that during lockdown, life would have been impossible with no streaming; I've got Netflix, I've got Disney, I've got Prime, I've got Apple... it's marvelous."

So what does Christmas Day now promise for Andy?

Andy Gray with Gillian Parkhouse, Allan Stewart, Grant Stott and Jordan Young in Goldilocks and the Three Bears

He reveals, “Normally, I always rent a flat in Edinburgh when I'm doing panto at the King’s, it's too much going back and forward from Perth every day. Often I’ll have a family thing if my daughter or partner Tamara are around. Sometimes I do go back up to Perth for Christmas Day but there are other times when, if I am really knackered, I just have the day off. I've done that a couple of times, just had a nice meal myself and then gone to my bed.

"Last year, I went through to my daughter Clare's, she was doing the King's panto with us, so I went to hers on Christmas Eve and that was lovely. When you're doing panto, you have to try to make it as normal as you possibly can, which I am sure everybody will be doing this year with the limitations."

"Well, when I had the flat in Milton Keynes I was supposed to be spending Christmas Day this year with King's panto producer Michael Harrison and his wife Kath in London, but they ended up in Tier 3 first, so then I planned to just sit in my flat and wait for the Doctor Who special to come on.”

The plan remains, much the same, only he’s back home he says, but one thing he doesn't need worry about on the big day is the present exchange.

"Most of the presents were delivered last week," he says, "Tamara has hers around her Christmas tree and I have a pile of presents here in the house. On Christmas Day I'll open them and have a couple of Proseccos. I'll have a couple on Hogmanay too."

Another thing he may do, he says, is watch the rerun of City Lights, the BBC Scotland sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1991, in which he starred as Chancer, alongside the late Gerard Kelly.

"I may give it a wee look," he nods, adding, "Mind, it'll be like watching my grandson playing Chancer now."

Before we finish chatting there's just time to discover if Andy, has a favourite panto gag.

He considers, "My favourite moments are not so much gags, but the times when Allan, Grant and me are on stage and something happens that shouldn't, usually during a lip-synch or when Grant is about to do some of his fine acting. Something like that that cracks me up."

Audiences too love those unplanned moments.

"There was the year Grant came on without his microphone," remembers Andy, "and then there was another time, when he decided he would catch me out by learning The Night Before Christmas and recite it to me on stage... but he dried after the first line. It was like an early Christmas present for me and I didn't let him off the hook, I can tell you. Those are the moments that we remember, for us they’re the highlights of the run."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription