SHE loves panto – so CBeebies’ Katy Ashworth is in her element as she stars as a very funky Fairy Godmother in this year’s Gazette-sponsored Anvil Arts pantomime Cinderella.

The mum-of-one is well-known to thousands of children and their families across the country as the presenter of one of the channel’s flagship series, I Can Cook.

She certainly knows her pantomime, having performed in several previous shows, but she’s particularly delighted to be partaking in the festive tradition this year as she’s in a new role.

“This is my first panto that’s not Peter Pan,” she reveals. “I have always been Peter before, and a fat Peter at that because they have to put this padding for the flying stuff and in rehearsals.

“You feel like a nimble flying elf then you get to the dress rehearsal and it’s like ‘here’s your brace that you have to put around you’ – it’s massive.

“I love flying. The flying people usually hate me because I like to do lots of flips and turns and I get all the wires muddled up. I love all the aerial and acrobatic stuff.”

Katy definitely loves to be a daredevil, and tells me a story of a skydive which almost went horribly wrong.

“I went to do my solo skydiving licence in Australia – I was three days pregnant but didn’t know – and I nearly died, basically,” she recalls.

“It was a present from my boyfriend after pantomime in Sunderland and you have to do eight jumps to get your licence.

“During the second jump, I was really jet lagged. My mind wasn’t in the game and I jumped out of the plane in a ball and literally spun at 200 miles an hour.

“My boyfriend was on the ground and saw a parachute coming down with no one in it. I was really scared of heights after that.”

While Katy is performing at The Anvil, she and her little boy Charlie are living with her dad in Yateley, where she grew up.

She said: “It is really great for me. I can be with my whole family for the whole Christmas period and that hasn’t happened before.

“Everything is exactly the same except I now have this extra little challenge (her son, Charlie) which is incredibly rewarding.”

Katy is also an accomplished actress, entertainer and singer as well as a presenter, and she gets to perform a fantastic lively number alongside some male dancers during Cinderella.

“Pantomime is probably one of the only jobs you can do where you can let loose – it’s so fun!” she said.

“Every time I do a pantomime, they manage to get it the cooking in somehow but you know that I am not actually a cook, right?!”