KEITH ‘Cheggers’ Chegwin may be Bootle-born, but he is very much a local these days.

Cheggers calls Ashmansworth home and, as such, he’s looking forward to greeting home audiences when he plays Buttons in this year’s Gazette-sponsored Anvil pantomime, Cinderella.

“I can’t wait”, a very bubbly Keith enthuses when I chat to him in the venue ahead of the run.

“Panto is pure escapism for me. I didn’t do it for about eight years and my son turned round and said, ‘Are you not doing panto any more?’ And I went ‘probably not’, and he went, ‘aw, go on’.

“He loves it because it’s a family occasion. My family come down here and see the show and we all go out to dinner.”

Keith’s co-stars this year are also from the local area. CBeebies’ Katy Ashworth currently lives in Yateley and Sarah Louise Day, below who plays Cinderella, was born and brought up in Basingstoke.

And Keith is genuinely excited about being back in the town for panto season.

Basingstoke Gazette:

He says: “It’s nice when you walk through Basingstoke because people go, ‘Alright Cheggers, how you doing, are you back again?’ I can’t wait to perform because the audiences are fantastic.”

Keith became a household name in the 1970s presenting the television shows Cheggers Plays Pop and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, and he has rarely been off our screens since.

He last performed at The Anvil in 2001 when he appeared in Mother Goose. More recently, he was part of ITV1’s Dancing on Ice.

He recalls: “I did all my training for Dancing On Ice in Basingstoke, and they were fantastic at the rink, so good.

“For the programme, some of the skaters got 30 hours of training and I got 10. I was never shown a lift so I went away and learned some lifts and they were like, ‘you’re doing lifts? You can’t do those.’ “I took it seriously. Me and my partner Olga came fifth which was pretty good really. She was the gremlin from the Kremlin, so tough at times, but she was absolutely brilliant.

“You have to be careful with skating – I have broken my shoulder in three places, cracked three ribs and broke my ankle before.”

As a result of his participation, Keith was invited to perform in The Nutcracker on Ice at the London Palladium with the Imperial Ice Stars.

“I thought it was a joke and played along with it at first,” he laughs incredulously. “On stage, there were 26 skaters and between them they had 250 bronze silver and gold medals – and then there was me!”

The very industrious Cheggers really can claim to have done it all. He has acted in films, in West End musicals and in advertisements.

Still one of showbusiness’ hardest workers, he has presented over 4,000 network live television programmes and recorded more than 3,000.

But he genuinely can’t wait to get stuck into this run of what he says is his favourite pantomime.

“I can’t wait to do Cinderella – I love it. I think of gags every day and just throw them in. It’s just my little challenge.

“It’s not hard work, is it? Dig the roads, that’s hard work. Four hours perfoming a day? No!”

See Keith as Buttons in the Gazette-sponsored Anvil pantomime Cinderella until January 4.

Tickets are available from the box office on 01256 844244 or online at anvilarts.org.uk.