A chat with popular CBBC presenter Ed Petrie who is appearing in our Christmas show Happy Ever After alongside Chris Jarvis and his fellow CBBC presenter Naomi Wilkinson.
“I said ‘yes’ to Chris before I even knew what the show was,’ laughs Ed. “He asked if I fancied spending Christmas in a show at Lighthouse in Poole with him and I was in. I’ve known Chris for ages – we shared a television studio for a while, he was doing CBeebies and I was presenting CBBC.”
It was only then that Ed found out he’d agreed to be in Happy Ever After, the family Christmas show written and directed by Chris in which a host of favourite pantomime and children’s story book characters from Jack and Genie to Humpty Dumpty and the Owl and the Pussycat help Cinderella to get to her next ball.
As well as Chris, Ed will be appearing alongside Naomi Wilkinson, his CBBC co-host on Marrying Mum and Dad, in which children plan their parents’ weddings. Naomi also features in Ed’s show All Over the Place.
“It’s going to be great. I’ve worked with Naomi for ten years so we know each other really well and if I know Chris there will be plenty of opportunity for messing around and we’re always up for that.
“With so many pantos being postponed and cancelled we’ve been able to assemble a brilliant cast of top notch performers so we know it’s going to be a fantastic show. I think people will need a taste of Christmas magic, especially after the year we’ve all had, they deserve to get together and see a really special show – and they know that if a show is cancelled then tickets will be refunded.”
Ed knows a thing or two about messing about by the water in Poole at Christmas time – he made his panto debut at Lighthouse in 2011 in Cinderella and returned three years later to play the hero in Robin Hood.
“Poole is where I caught the panto bug, in Cinderella, I love it. I have such a lot to be grateful to Poole for.
“In fact, I know Poole very well as my uncle lived there for years so we used to visit him there all the time. My mum and dad are both from the south coast and that whole stretch feels like home so now that I’ve got a three-year-old and a five-year-old of my own, with my wife, we’re all going to have a great family Christmas overlooking the sea on Poole Quay, which is brilliant.”
The coronavirus pandemic has made life very different for everyone this year and Ed is no exception. Plans that had been made, had to be remade, then completely changed. Few things turned out the way anyone thought they would, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, says Ed.
“Well, Naomi and I were due to film a new series of Marrying Mum and Dad, but it kept getting postponed because of the pandemic and in the end we just had to cancel it for the time being, which was really sad. Then of course the panto I was going to do was cancelled, so when Chris rang me to ask if I was up for being in Happy Ever After and it was in Poole I was in right away.
“I’m usually filming on location zipping around all over the country so my commute to work over Christmas is going to be brilliant – just a stroll along Poole High Street.”
Happy Ever After is being performed at Lighthouse Poole 18 DEC - 3 JAN.
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