IT'S that time of year already. Oh yes it is.Summer may still be a fresh memory, but pantomime season is just around the corner and actors who will be appearing in Ipswich this Christmas just couldn't wait to get started.

IT'S that time of year already. Oh yes it is.

Summer may still be a fresh memory, but pantomime season is just around the corner and actors who will be appearing in Ipswich this Christmas just couldn't wait to get started.

Members of the cast who will be appearing in the Regent Theatre's Snow White pantomime later this year were in town today for their first pre-show get together.

Leading the way was the star of this year's show, Anita Dobson, who will be showing her nasty side when she plays the Wicked Queen.

Speaking exclusively to the Evening Star ahead of today's event, Anita said she is looking forward to playing Snow White's wicked stepmother.

“At Christmas if you're not doing pantomime you feel like you haven't been invited to the best party on the block,” she said.

This year will be the fifth time Anita has played the Wicked Queen in Snow White and she said she now knows the part well and has mastered the art of scaring children while also giving them plenty to laugh at.

“I know the song I'm singing and that the costume works and I know the script and what to do with it and the character,” she said.

“For the children, it's funny but also scary, but they have to enjoy the scariness, you mustn't scare them so much they run out of the theatre. This is one of the best roles in pantomime for an older actress.”

But pantomime isn't just about fun and games and the former Eastenders star said pantomime plays an important role in theatre.

“It is often children's first experience of theatre and they need to love it and be excited and want to come back, and they can grow up to be a generation who want to go the theatre.”

Now a well established actress working in both the West End and around the country, Anita has left her days as Angie Watts far behind her - and fans of the soap will have to look hard to see any hint of Angie in her performance.

“For some people I will always be Angie, that is the role that made me and established me as an actress and a household name, For a lot of people they don't want to forget Angie, she's inside me and in some way people want to know she's still alive and well.