Stefan Booth Online

Dick Whittington - BBC Three Counties Radio

Heart throb Stefan Booth will soon be packing up his spotted handkerchief and starring as Dick Whittington at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage!

Stefan’s television career began with a two-year stint in Hollyoaks playing the controversial part of heartbreaker Jamie Nash. On leaving the show he soon joined the cast of The Bill as PC Marc Rollins. Alongside his television career, Stefan has also had a very successful stage career, which has included playing the main role of Don in tour of Cliff Richards’ Summer Holiday.

Earlier this year Stefan starred in the weekly Saturday evening show Dancing On Ice where he was voted through to the final by the public to skate the Bolero in front of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

We caught up with Stefan in rehearsals for a quick chat to find out more …

What does Panto mean to you?
I've always loved Panto! I love the magic of it, the alchemy of working with a live audience, on stage, and I also just love working with children. Their ability to believe in a story, their imagination, and their lack of fear when it comes to believing in a fairy tale is just amazing. It's quite magical to be at the receiving end of that and to see the look on their faces.

As an actor, you can instantly see the effect you're having on the audience and hopefully making a positive impact on the younger generation.

Some people might not agree with me, but I really feel that children these days need inspiration and to be enthused with passion and theatre is just perfect for that!

It's just a lovely thought to know that I'm going to be performing in front of a live audience again.

Away from your acting work, the charity World Vision is clearly close to your heart, and you've been very actively involved in their projects in Kenya, Armenia and The Sudan, could you tell us a little more about your involvement with the charity?
I decided to get involved with the charity World Vision in quite an unusual way. I was watching TV one day and I it was almost as if this Monty Python-esq hand came down and said "You must pick up the phone and ring them!" So I dialled their number and asked how I could help out and after meeting up with them, they said they wanted me to become an Ambassador for World Vision.

Basically, World Vision works in over one hundred countries worldwide, fighting basic poverty, human trafficking and all the ugly things in life that people tend to turn a blind eye to. But importantly for me, children are the charity's main focal point. They're a relief and development agency, so they get to work instantly when there's a major disaster in the world or a war.

I was in Kenya earlier this year to try and highlight the food shortage out there, which is inevitably going to get worse with the impending drought. My venture was not only to translate where people's money goes when they donate to the charity but also to highlight the difference between communities which had benefited from long term development programmes and those that hadn't.

It's nice to know that you can help in some small way and make a difference, and unfortunately not enough people believe that. They think "What difference can my Ł5 make?" but to know that that money could buy a family a goat, which would produce milk, which could keep them alive or to know that your money could go towards buying a child an education is an amazing feeling.

You've already starred in Hollyoaks, The Bill, Dancing on Ice, you've worked with 'So Solid Crew' and you've a successful stage career - is there anything you can't do?
You know there are things you do for passion, and there are things you do for money! The singing and the songwriting has always been something that I've been passionate about so it's going to be nice to tie in my singing with the pantomime - singing and acting at the same time.

I did a stint on stage with Suzanne Shaw in Cliff Richards' Summer Holiday, which was just incredible, and hopefully Dick Whittington is going to be another chance to get stuck in and do what I love doing.

What are you looking forward to most with this production?
I can't wait to get up on stage with Sheila [Ferguson] and Lynsey Britton - I saw Lynsey in 'Guy and Dolls' in the West End where she played the part of Adelaide opposite Patrick Swayze and she was just amazing! And of course entertaining audiences - old and new!