PANTOMIME DAME

A 'pantomime dame' is a traditional character in British pantomime. It is a continuation of en travesti portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. They are played either in an extremely camp style, often but not exclusively by actors well-known for their homosexuality or effeminacy, or else by men acting 'butch' in women's clothing.
One example is Widow Twankey in the British pantomime version of the ''Aladdin'' story. In ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (Episode 30) non-British viewers were puzzled by the nature-film sequence in which the Pantomime Princess Margaret, lurking in the undergrowth harpooned a silver breakfast tray that was scuttling down the woodland trail: "The unsuspecting breakfast glides ever closer to its doom..."

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Notable Pantomime Dames in Britain

Notable Pantomime Dames in Britain

★ Paul Barret - Resident dame for the Citadel Arts Centre in St. Helens. With his distinctive style he has managed to have audiences rolling in the aisles with his ad-libbing and unique humour. He has also written a pantomime that was performed at the same venue in 2005 entitled 'The Princess with the Purple Hair'. In this, however, he broke with traditional and played a hunchback called 'Drudge'.

★ Christopher Biggins - TV personality, actor

★ Norman Evans - "Evans' distinctive dame evolved out of nosy neighbour Fanny Fairbottom, a character he played on the sketch show ''Mr Tower of London''. Fanny was hugely popular, and allegedly inspired Les Dawson to create the character of Ada" [1]

★ Melvyn Hayes - TV personality, actor

★ John Inman - Camp comedy actor well-known for playing Mr Humphries in TV's ''Are You Being Served?''

★ Berwick Kaler - Currently Britain's longest serving, Kaler has played his extremely non-camp dame at York Theatre Royal since 1977

★ Sir Ian McKellen - Theatre and film actor, famous for playing the role of Gandalf in ''The Lord Of The Rings'' film trilogy.

★ George Lacey - "Widely regarded as the greatest dame of his generation, Lacey played more than 60 dames between 1923, when he was 19, and 1984" [2]

★ James Rogers (disambiguation) - The first actor to play Widow Twankey, in the 1861 pantomime at the Strand Theatre. Twankey was a popular brand of Chinese green tea

★ Danny La Rue - Transvestite cabaret entertainer

★ "Little Tich" - Harry Relph

★ Jack Tripp - February 4, 1922 - July 10, 2005