A fine mess

It was a way of courting certain death. If, around November time, a TV soap character ended up being drowned in a canal, or fatally stabbed in an ill-lit back alley, you could be sure that the actor concerned had committed a dreadful crime: he or she had accepted a starring role in a panto.

In the old days, TV production bosses apparently didn't like soap stars stepping out of character to play Idle Jack or Widow Twankey. The message was clear: once your character had been killed off, there was no way back - only in Dallas was resurrection possible.

Nowadays things are different. A year ago on Coronation Street, Danny Baldwin, a lovable rogue, but certainly not a man you would buy a used car from, disappeared in swirling mist down by - you've guessed it - the canal. But there was no ominous splash, no body hauled out by the police.

A few weeks later, Danny (aka actor Bradley Walsh) popped up in panto in Milton Keynes. He was a big box-office success, so he's been asked back this year, to top the bill as Wishee Washee in Aladdin.

But, millions want to know, has Danny Baldwin vanished for good? As it's no longer an unforgivable sin for a soap star to appear in panto, could he return to Coronation Street?

"I'm still under an ITV contract," Bradley told me just before Aladdin rehearsals got under way. "Danny was supposed to reappear this year, but I couldn't do it because the storylines have to be done four months in advance. So if the storylines are set in March, you need to start filming in July, and if you've got something on in July, as I had, then that knocks that out of bed. Then you have to wait till the next storyline conference comes up. That's how it works."

Bradley Walsh had no idea he would end up as an actor. His dream was to become a professional footballer, a dream that came true when he was signed by Brentford.

"People wouldn't remember me playing for Brentford, I was a very average player," Bradley assured me. "As a kid, all I wanted to do was to play professional soccer and I got to do it for a couple of years. So that was one box ticked!"

So how did the switch to acting come about?

"I was the class clown at school and then I messed around in the factory where I worked - Rolls Royce helicopter engines at Leavesden. I used to mess around in the dressing room at football, too. So when my dream of playing soccer ended - I had to pack it in because of ankle injuries - I went on holiday with about six pals. One of them was a guy called Bob Booker - he played for Brentford, went on to Sheffield United, and then managed Brighton and Hove Albion.

"When we were away, Bob said to me: Why don't you enter the talent show?' This was on the island of Majorca. So I did, as a comedian impressionist. I won, which meant we got free champagne for about three nights. So I thought to myself: That's not bad, all I've done is mess around, and I've won us all champagne', although it probably wasn't champagne, it was probably some cheap old plonk.

"I ended up thinking: This is quite good'. So then I wrote away to become a Bluecoat at Pontins - that was real training, because you were meeting the public, singing and dancing, doing all sorts. But I was only there for two months. I kept getting told off for messing around, although I thought that was the job.

"Then I wrote letters to 30 agents and got one back. His name was George Fisher, and he said: I've got you a booking, I'm going to book you blind: we need you to do the DOB Club in Kilburn. It was a British Legion club, DOB stands for Done Our Bit'. I did 14 minutes on stage, and got paid probably about 25 quid - this was in 1981 or 1982. I loved it."

A spell on the comedy circuit followed, ending up with Bradley Walsh appearing in big league shows with the likes of Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. Then came TV work, the part of Danny on Coronation Street, and a starring role in last year's Milton Keynes panto.

Playing opposite Bradley is Eloise Irving, playing the Princess. Had she not been in the final stages of rehearsal, she might have appeared on a distinctly different stage earlier this week - that of Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre. Eloise is a regular singer with top choral group Oxford Camerata, which has just given its first concert in its home city for some years. Trained as an actress, a harpist, and a choral scholar, Eloise hasn't exactly taken a traditional route into pantomime. But she's no newcomer, she told me.

"I was Little Red Riding Hood when I was ten. It was the most exciting thing ever. It was my local amateur dramatic society in Haywards Heath, and I got to sing A, you're Adorable - it was 1994, so they had all those very old-fashioned songs."

But given that classical musicians don't often appear in panto, I wondered what the reaction was when Eloise meets up with her classical colleagues, and they ask what she's doing next. When she says she's going to appear in panto, do they say Oh, how interesting' in a polite but guarded voice, then edge quickly away?

"Funnily enough, no," Eloise laughed. "I've recently come back from a tour with the Camerata - I was singing Tallis and Byrd, composers like that. I told the other singers and they were so excited that they are going to organise a busload of people to come along.

"Generally people have been very supportive. But it is very odd, when you're singing all this stuff, and at the end you say: I'm off to do a bit of pantomime'. I tell them that I get to ride on a flying carpet too - and you don't normally do that with the Oxford Camerata!".

Aladdin opens at Milton Keynes Theatre tonight, and runs until January 20. Tickets: 0870 060 6652 or www.miltonkeynestheatre.com