Mother Goose's Silver Jubilee, York Theatre Royal, this week until January 31.

"I found the whole thing strange, but mostly the dame," recalls York's favourite "posh one from the South". "I was taken only once to the panto. I think it may well have been the Harlow Playhouse - well, I am an Essex girl, remember - and it all seemed very clowny to me, and I didn't like clowns either. They're very grotesque too.

"So I never envisaged being in panto. Didn't want to do it. Never!" Nevertheless, she does indeed do panto, so much so that Mother Goose's Silver Jubilee will be her tenth Theatre Royal pantomime.

Suzy made her debut in 1993 and has missed only panto, Dick Whittington in 2000, when filming commitments for Casualty prevented her participation. Yet she might never have become part of Berwick Kaler's pantomime team at all.

"I didn't know until Berwick told me the other day that he was the only one who wanted me after my audition. Stephen Keeling, the musical director, said 'No'; Stephanie Carter, the choreographer, said 'No, no, no'. But Berwick, he thought I had the right whatever. Maybe it was because I was wearing a red panto coat - you should always wear something distinctive like that coat. In fact I still wear it."

Never mind that she had botched her audition piece.

"My agent had called me to say that someone had dropped out of the York panto and would I go up for an audition? I was the last one of the day, and I'd chosen Stephen Sondheim's Cinderella's Song to sing, not the best choice. I had to stop in the middle because I got it wrong, but I decided to plough on and finished it at a different time to the musical director but I thought it was fine."

Luckily Berwick was amused by her floundering performance and decided he had found his Jill for that year's Jack And The Beanstalk.

Her sunny disposition continues to shine, no matter what Berwick and co throw at her.

"You're either a cup-half-full person or cup-half-empty person, and I'm definitely a cup half full. I'm not easily offended, in fact I'm never offended and I think you have to have that disposition to work in the environment we do," says Suzy. "You have to be prepared to make a fool of yourself; you can't afford to be precious.

"I owe an awful lot to Berwick because he persisted with me and gave me the chance to be funny in pantomime, which is so rare for a girl in a traditionally dull, pretty role."

Now 34, Suzy relishes her yearly fix of Theatre Royal panto mayhem. "I love it more each year," she says. "People say 'Don't you get bored' and I tell them 'No, I can't wait to get back to York and see how many more nail bars have opened."

Mother Goose's Silver Jubilee, York Theatre Royal, this week until January 31. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 13:26 Friday, December 12, 2003