Nicky Swift has spent a year of the last four playing pantomime fairies. She tells Laura Davis why she loves it

IT MUST be pretty gauling to Nicky Swift that despite spending one quarter of the past four years as a fairy she hasn’t gleaned any magic powers.

Last year, as Fairy Lights in Dick Whittington, she had a dress covered tiny bulbs that lit up when she flicked a switch.

But that was driven by a battery in her costume rather than an enchantment.

Even so there has to be a sprinkling of faerie dust on the Everyman panto, whether scattered by a theatre pixie or simply a combination of talent and enthusiasm, for it to be so well loved by so many.

“People come back year after year and never seem to get tired of it,” says Swift, who grew up in Aughton.

The actor joined the team four years ago and, as well as Fairy Lights, has played Nelly Salt in Jack and the Beanstalk (2006), Fairy Nokia in Aladdin (2007) and Fairy Feathers in Mother Goose (2008).

In this year’s panto, Sleeping Beauty: Wake Up Little Snoozie, she is Milly Moonbeam – a role she turned down a big UK tour to do.

“My agent thought I was mad but it would have meant I couldn’t do the Everyman panto or Lennon, says Swift, who played Cynthia Lennon in Bob Eaton’s recent Royal Court show.

“To be able to do two shows back at home was great.”

Panto regulars Adam Keast, who also played Brian Epstein in Lennon, and Francis Tucker will be returning for their eighth and 11th years – Keast as a pair of kings (King Scarlet of Egg Bush and King Norma) and Tucker as his wives.

The show has again been written by Sarah Nixon and Mark Chatterton, with musical director Tayo Akinbode adding songs by a wide range of acts including Queen, The Beatles, Eliza Doolittle, Journey and The Black Eyed Peas.

It’s the people involved in the show that brings Swift back year after year, she says.

“It’s just so much fun,” she explains.

“You can have a laugh without putting the show in jeopardy and you never really stop.

“Sometimes it can get a bit boring when you are onstage for five minutes and then have to sit in the dressing room for the next 15 minutes.

“But because we’re the band as well as the characters we are on stage all the time.”