Ben Tyler heads to Eastbourne this Christmas for his first professional panto on the back of three years in The Book of Mormon.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this
00:07morning to speak to Prince Charming no less, Ben Tyler, who will be Prince Simon in Snow
00:12White in Eastbourne this Christmas. Lovely prospect. What are you going to bring to the
00:16role of Prince Simon?
00:20Hopefully a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. I really want to try and bring myself and my
00:24own personality to it and make him, yeah, make him memorable and hopefully something
00:30a little bit different to maybe what people have seen before.
00:33You were saying that what you don't want to do is the generic Prince Charming and that's
00:37where your personality comes in.
00:39Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I want to, I just, I think it's always important to try
00:44and bring yourself to a role and particularly in a role that's so, you know, so well known
00:50and so well done, it's nice to try and bring sort of a slightly different spin and bring
00:55myself and my personality and my sense of humour to it. I'm always one for a sort of
01:00panto joke and a dad joke and hopefully I can bring that sort of sense of fun to it.
01:04Fantastic. Are you honing those jokes? Have you got some jokes in mind?
01:07Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I've got some of them underlined and circled already that
01:12I'll be making the most of.
01:14Fantastic. And the really interesting thing is this is your professional panto debut.
01:17You did panto as a child, but this is the professional debut. Why now? What makes you want to do it?
01:23Honestly, I've always wanted to. I've always wanted to be able to give panto a go. I always
01:28loved sort of going to panto as a kid and it's been my first opportunity to be in a
01:36panto professionally. So, yeah, when the opportunity came up, I jumped at it.
01:41And the opportunity hasn't come before now largely because you've had three years in
01:45the Book of Mormon.
01:46I have, yeah.
01:47Loved it.
01:48Yes, absolutely loved it. It's such a great show to work on, amazing people to work with.
01:53And it was a real, a show that's very close to my heart since it was one of the reasons
01:58that I sort of got into performing and acting in musical theatre. So, yeah, it was great,
02:04great to be able to work on it.
02:05And three years sounds a long time, but the fact is you had such variety of swing.
02:10Yes, yeah, absolutely. I covered nine roles in the show. So, I did the seven ensemble
02:17Mormon boys, Elder Price and the mission president and Joseph Smith. I covered all of them. So,
02:22I was always on my toes. It was, yeah, difficult to get bored.
02:26And you found it difficult to leave. Would you ever go back, do you think?
02:30Yeah, it felt like the right time to leave after three years. But it's one of those,
02:36it's one of those buildings they always say that you never really leave. I imagine I'll
02:39be back in some capacity at some point if it's sort of covering for illness, if they're
02:44a little bit short or something like that. I'm sure I'll find my way back there at some
02:49point.
02:50For another three years?
02:51I don't know about another three years, but maybe for a little stint, who knows?
02:56Fantastic. Well, lovely to speak to you. Have a great time in Eastbourne this Christmas.
02:59And thank you.
03:00Thank you very much. Thank you. Lovely to speak to you.