PANTO favourite John Evans [Wishee Washee] is gearing up to return to the Venue Cymru stage for his 11th time.

Evans, who is starring in Aladdin this December, will join actor James Lusted [High Councillor] from Rhos-on-Sea; musical theatre performer Jade Davies [Princess Jasmine] from Denbigh and Eric Potts, who will be directing and appearing in the production as Widow Twankey.

Jason March-Williams is starring as Abanazar and Danny Hendrix will play the title role, Aladdin.

Asked by coastal chief reporter Suzanne Kendrick what it is like to return to the Venue Cymru stage once again and what he loves about the area, Evans replied: "The people, it is fantastic. I love the area, I love the town. I always have a great time when I come here and the theatre staff are lovely, I just love it - it is great.

"It has been a long time. It is a relief.

"It is lovely to get back and I know the theatre did a fantastic job during Covid and totally changed their working ways around to help people. But it is great to be back and get ready for panto."

Evans admitted it was "strange" not to be in pantomime last year; Evans first appeared in a Llandudno pantomime in 2006 and performed every year until 2016 before performing at the Liverpool Empire Theatre for three years.

Evans said: "We had a few people around for Christmas dinner in 2020 and I was doing a song sheet at the end of Christmas dinner. People were saying - 'shut up! You are off work! Have Christmas off!'"

Evans is hoping to bring "big laughs" this year to the role of Wishee Washee.

He added: "We are going to have some great times. I love it because people know me. It will go wrong, trust me, when I'm on, but don't worry we will have a laugh! I'm going to bring some real big laughs to it I hope.

"We are desperate to get back to it so let's go in with a bang."

Aladdin will run at Venue Cymru from December 11 2021 until January 2 2022.

Visit www.venuecymru.co.uk/aladdin-3 to book or telephone the box office on 01492 872000.

Readers will need a NHS Covid Pass or proof of a recent negative Covid test result with photo ID to attend the performance.

For information on how to obtain the pass visit the Welsh Government website https://gov.wales/get-your-nhs-covid-pass