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A pantomime dame is a traditional character in British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 pantomime
Pantomime

Pantomime is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in Great Britain, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Republic of Ireland, Gibraltar and Republic of Malta, and is usually performed during the Christmas and New Year season....
. It is a continuation of en travesti
En travesti

En travesti is a theatrical term refering to the portrayal of a character in a Play , opera or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English classifies the term as "pseudo-French language"....
 portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag
Drag (clothing)

Drag in its broadest sense means any clothing one wears. However, the traditional use of the term is for any costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance....
. They are often played either in an extremely camp style, or else by men acting 'butch
Butch

Butch is a gender role, which may be expressed in the context of a butch and femme relationship.Butch may also refer to:...
' in women's clothing. They wear big make up, big hair and have exaggerated physical features performing in an melodramatic style.

One example is Widow Twankey
Widow Twankey

Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin. The character is a pantomime dame, portrayed by a man; and is a comic foil to the principal boy, Aladdin – played by a female actor....
 in the British pantomime version of the Aladdin
Aladdin

Aladdin is one of the tales of Islamic Golden Age origin in the One Thousand and One Nights, and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
 story.






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A pantomime dame is a traditional character in British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 pantomime
Pantomime

Pantomime is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in Great Britain, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Republic of Ireland, Gibraltar and Republic of Malta, and is usually performed during the Christmas and New Year season....
. It is a continuation of en travesti
En travesti

En travesti is a theatrical term refering to the portrayal of a character in a Play , opera or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English classifies the term as "pseudo-French language"....
 portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag
Drag (clothing)

Drag in its broadest sense means any clothing one wears. However, the traditional use of the term is for any costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance....
. They are often played either in an extremely camp style, or else by men acting 'butch
Butch

Butch is a gender role, which may be expressed in the context of a butch and femme relationship.Butch may also refer to:...
' in women's clothing. They wear big make up, big hair and have exaggerated physical features performing in an melodramatic style.

One example is Widow Twankey
Widow Twankey

Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin. The character is a pantomime dame, portrayed by a man; and is a comic foil to the principal boy, Aladdin – played by a female actor....
 in the British pantomime version of the Aladdin
Aladdin

Aladdin is one of the tales of Islamic Golden Age origin in the One Thousand and One Nights, and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
 story. In Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python?s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, Wiktionary:risqu? or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines....
 () 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..."

Notable Pantomime Dames in Britain


  • Douglas Byng (1893-1988) - A legendary dame who appeared in over 50 pantomimes, Byng was also a noted cabaret and revue artiste. He was the first glamorous dame and designed all his own costumes.
  • Woody - Resident dame for the Citadel Arts Centre in St. Helens.
  • Christopher Biggins
    Christopher Biggins

    Christopher Biggins is an England actor and media personality....
     - TV personality, actor
  • Norman Evans
    Norman Evans

    Norman Evans , was a variety and radio artiste, born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England.Norman was discovered by fellow Rochdale entertainer Gracie Fields....
     - "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
    Les Dawson

    Les Dawson was a popular England comedian, known for his deadpan style and curmudgeonly persona, and famous for mother-in-law joke and wife....
     to create the character of Ada"
  • Melvyn Hayes
    Melvyn Hayes

    Melvyn Hayes is an English people actor.He is probably best known for playing the effeminate Gunner 'Gloria' Beaumont in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum,...
     - TV personality, actor well-known for playing Gunner/Bombardier 'Gloria' Beaumont in BBC TV's It Ain't Half Hot Mum
    It Ain't Half Hot Mum

    It Ain't Half Hot Mum was a British sitcom about the adventures of a Royal Artillery Concert Party , broadcast between 1974 and 1981, and written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army....
  • John Inman
    John Inman

    Frederick John Inman was an England actor who was best known for his role as List of Are You Being Served? characters#Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries in Are You Being Served?, a British sitcom in the 1970s and 1980s....
     - Camp comedy actor well-known for playing Mr Humphries in BBC TV's Are You Being Served?
    Are You Being Served?

    Are You Being Served? was a long-running British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the men's and women's department of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London store....
  • Berwick Kaler
    Berwick Kaler

    Berwick Kaler is a British actor most famous for playing the pantomime dame in York Theatre Royal's annual pantomime, which he also writes and directs....
     - Currently Britain's longest serving, Kaler has played his extremely non-camp dame at York
    York

    York is a walled city, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire and River Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city status in the United Kingdom is noted for its rich heritage and it has played an important role throughout much of its almost 2,000 year existence....
     Theatre Royal since 1977
  • 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"
  • James Rogers - The first actor to play Widow Twankey, in the 1861 pantomime at the Strand Theatre. Twankey was a popular brand of Chinese green tea
    Tea

    Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods....
  • Danny La Rue
    Danny La Rue

    Danny La Rue, OBE was born on 26 July1927 as Daniel Patrick Carroll in County Cork, is an entertainer known for his drag impersonator....
     - veteran drag artist
  • "Little Tich
    Little Tich

    Harry Relph, known on the stage as 'Little Tich', was an England music hall comedian. He was noted for his various characters, including The Spanish Se?ora, The Gendarme, and The Tax Collector, and his most popular routine was his Big Boot dance, which involved a pair of 28-inch boots....
    " - Harry Relph
  • Jack Tripp
    Jack Tripp

    Jack Tripp , was a British comic actor best known for his many performances as a pantomime dame.He was born in Plymouth, Devon, and took up dancing as a child....
     - February 4, 1922 - July 10, 2005
  • Tommy Trafford
    Tommy Trafford

    Tommy Trafford was a Lancashire comedian and a noted pantomime dame.He lived his early life in Blacko, where he performed in church productions alongside Jimmy Clitheroe, "The Clitheroe Kid", with whom he went to school....
     - Lancashire comedian
  • Christopher Friar - Dame Molly in Peter Pan, Glasgow 2007
  • Patrick Fyffe - creator of Dame Hilda Bracket
  • Les Dawson
    Les Dawson

    Les Dawson was a popular England comedian, known for his deadpan style and curmudgeonly persona, and famous for mother-in-law joke and wife....
     - TV comedian
  • Kenneth Alan Taylor - actor, writer director who has performed at Nottingham Playhouse
    Nottingham Playhouse

    The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema....
     for 25 years.