GRAND Opera House pantomime joker Aiden J Harvey couldn't stomach the British after-dinner circuit any more. He had had his fill of being expected to turn the air blue, and the risque requirements of late-night dinner gigs did not fit in with his gentle comedy style. So, when the invitation came to work on the Mediterranean hotel-cabaret circuit, naturally he was interested.

"I veer away from the blue stuff; it doesn't suit me," he says. "I don't really swear in my normal life and I didn't like the way you had to do it to get attention when performing at dinners. Now my contract with the hotel companies says no swearing and no racism, and that is stipulated by the hotels, which is fine by me."

His move abroad came three years ago, and the Manchester-born impressionist, comic and singer has no regrets about upping sticks with his family, leaving "the cold but lovely" Buxton for an old barn in Son Carrio, Majorca.

From May through to October, he performs for Thomson and other hotel companies in Majorca; in the winter months he returns to Britain for the pantomime season, this year to play Idle Jack, the stand-out performance in Dick Whittington at the Opera House in York.

His working practice well suits Aiden and his family; wife Christine, son Dan, 13, and daughter Annie, seven. "When this Spanish agent offered me a contract, after seeing me performing in Birmingham, initially it was for six months but I didn't want to be away from the family just for that time and then come back home. So I said 'What if I prise a contract out of him for the winter as well and we all move out there?'"

Contract duly secured, the Harvey family migrated south. "Thankfully it's gone well, and we've been there for three years," Aiden says: "The barn was a shack when we moved in and it took 16 months to get it to look anything like we wanted, but we look out over the ocean, there are almond trees and orange trees, and when I take the dog for a walk I can pick the fruit."

Aiden even developed new skills when doing up the barn: "I'd never built a wall before, so I've learnt some new talents."

There is only one down side to this island paradise. "I don't get to see much TV, living in the sticks in Majorca, so I don't do as many impressions now in my cabaret show," says Aiden, a former Blue Coat, who made his name when winning the All Winners Final on New Faces in 1974.

He reckons that back then he was the first to "do" John Noakes and the racing commentators Peter O'Sullevan and Michael O'Hare, in the days when "you could just put a hat or pair of glasses on to do an impression".

With the aid of make-up and television technology, the likes of Rory Bremner and Alistair McGowan have made the art of television mimicry far more sophisticated than in the era of Mike Yarwood - who Aiden still rates as the best ever - and Harvey's own days on Who Do You Do? and Copy Cats. In panto, he relies on voice and mannerism when impersonating lisping Chris Eubank and vowel-mangling Loyd Grossman, as well as old favourites Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.

He makes a surprising confession, however. "I find it harder now to do impressions," he says. "Young people are natural mimics but the older you get, the more difficult it is. You've still got an ear for it but it's difficult to get a voice right - although accents are no problem. So in my cabaret, I mainly do accents. I don't do gags 'straight': if it's set in a Glasgow pub I'll tell it in a Scottish accent."

Even if Aiden believes his powers of mimicry are diminishing with age - and his panto performance suggests he is being harsh on himself - he has not lost the ability to play the big kid, the dim silly Billy in pantoland at 50.

"It's got to be all of 25 years ago that I started playing this part - Buttons is my favourite because he has pathos - but it's a very strange thing to do! In panto, I'm 20 years old in my head and I have to think that way and behave that way but there are 30 years on top of that in reality."

Aiden has played other panto roles, such as Dandini in his younger days, and now he harbours ambitions of swapping from good to evil. "I'd like to play the baddie one day," he says, but does he really believe that transformation will happen? "I hope so. I'd love the challenge."

In the meantime, he is enjoying his second Grand Opera House panto, having starred in the Millennium production of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

He remembers fondly that stay in York. "Christine and I went to the midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the Minster with the kids and it was lovely," he says. "We love the streets here. People who live in York are very fortunate."

Dick Whittington, at the Grand Opera House, York, until January 6. Box office: 01904 671818.