WHEN a top-order batsman is injured in cricket, everyone moves up one for the next innings.

The same applies to this winter's York Theatre Royal where Martin Barrass's motorcycle crash has necessitated a re-jig that requires AJ Powell to take over Marton's planned role as an Ugly Sister, in turn giving Harry Hughes a chance to shine as Buttons, AJ's original role.

"It was really weird because I'd got my contract through earlier in the year but then two weeks before we were due to start rehearsals, Berwick said, 'What do you think? I want to keep it in the family, So would you do Buttons with AJ moving up to Ugly Sister', when we were all thinking 'How are we going to do this without Martin?'.It was a pretty emotional time for us all," says Harry, the York-born, Pocklington-raised actor and dancer who has steadily worked his way into being a regular in the company for Berwick Kaler's pantomimes.

Martin Barrass's remarkable recuperation and recovery – featured so joyously in The Press's front page lead yesterday – has led to buoyancy returning to the Theatre Royal building, although Martin's skip and bounce will have to wait to next Christmas's pantomime. Instead it falls to the likes of Harry to step up to the plate.

"I don't actually know what part I would have had before Martin's accident as we don't see the script until we get together, but Berwick usually makes something up for me," says Harry. "Now he's re-worked Buttons to suit my character, which he's so good at doing.

"This is my fifth year in the Theatre Royal panto since returning to the show after I was in it twice as a child, at ten and 11, when I did Mother Goose and Sleeping Beauty, and then came back into it at 18 when I was a student.

"It was weird, when I was young I used to look up to Suzy Cooper [who will be playing the title role in Cinderella] and now we're really good friends but it still feels bizarre because you think, 'It's Suzy Cooper!!'."

Playing Buttons in the newly redesigned Theatre Royal main house will be Harry's most prominent panto role yet. "Buttons has a really nice relationship with Cinderella where he's constantly hopeful but is always let down very gently and in the end he realises that it's all fine really and we'll all live happily ever after," he says.

He first joined the company as part of the dance ensemble, but now finds himself maximising his acting talents. "I think of myself more as an actor than a dancer, but now that I'm not in as many dances this time, I feel a bit bare!" he says.

Berwick Kaler's script brings out the best in him. "Berwick's really great at knowing what works for you and because I've been in the show as a child, he's taken me under his wing, so he's kind of like a father figure. It's been a gradual progression, so you don't realise you're doing more each year as it just sort of happens!" says Harry.

"It's weird how it all seems to link together randomly, but with Buttons you know it'll be enjoyable playing him as innocent and a bit slow on the uptake – and I'll try not to take that to heart personally!"

Harry savoured last winter's one-off experience of the Theatre Royal panto residency on the tracks at the National Railway Museum. It was a show constantly on the move, as the actors leapt on and off the mobile set in the often somewhat chilly Signal Box Theatre tent.

"It was all about your weight distribution, learning how to step on and off, but then you stopped thinking about and just did it instinctively," he recalls. "I'll never forget that show but it's nice to back home in the Theatre Royal...with some heating that really works!!"

Cinderella runs at York Theatre Royal from tonight until January 28 2017. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk