Exclusive interview with Les Dennis and Connor McIntyre

CORONATION STREET’S SWORN ENEMIES ARE BACK TOGETHER! OH YES THEY ARE! This Christmas, Connor McIntyre and Les Dennis will be starring as Ugly Sisters in Cinderella at the Opera House, Manchester. Connor first stepped onto the cobbles in 2014, as the infamous Pat Phelan. He was named Villain of the Year at the British Soap Awards for two years running. TV legend Les Dennis, played Michael Rodwell in the soap for two years, until he was left for dead by murderous Phelan. The pair have now teamed up for a joint reign of terror – making Cinderella’s life a misery! Style caught up with the duo to discuss the cobbles, Christmas dinner and life in Pantoland…

Style: How did you end up playing Ugly Sisters together?

Les: I went to last year’s production of Dick Whittington and saw the announcement in the programme for this year’s Cinderella. My wife Claire said wouldn’t it be great if Connor was to do it and Michael and Phelan were back together again! So I got on to the director Michael Harrison and suggested the idea.

Connor: I thought what a great idea. What a perfect antedote to playing Pat Phelan. This is my first ever panto and how lucky am I? My first panto and I get to do it in Manchester with my great mate Les Dennis!

Any hints as to what we should expect from Michaela and Phelana?

Connor: They are two baddies but one is badder than the other, but which way around is probably up for grabs. But they truly are panto baddies.

Les: You can expect lots of Corrie gags, funny material about being the ugly sisters and really upsetting Cinderella of course... that’s our job!

Connor: That’s our greatest delight.

Have you had a peek at your costumes yet and who has the most extravagant?

Connor: Well I do, obviously!

Les: We’ve had a peek at our opening costumes and in fact we’ve worn our opening costumes more than once for press shoots. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg - I reckon we’ve got about five or six changes of costumes.

Which has the most gruelling schedule, Coronation Street or Cinderella?

Les: My Corrie schedule was sometimes gruelling and sometimes not, but with panto it is relentless, as you do two shows everyday, and you have to give 100% every show.

Connor: If you have a heavy storyline on Coronation Street you are very busy - this is just like one of those condensed storylines and, of course, it’s live. With Corrie there’s no instantaneous response but with theatre you can sort of float on the audience’s energy.

What do you think it is about pantomime that the British public love so much?

Les: I think it is a tradition, something that goes back centuries to Dan Leno. Men dressing as women and women dressing as men. The slapstick comedy that’s funny for both children and adults – it’s very much part of English heritage. And Cinderella is the most magical panto of them all, the story is there, the magic is there, the comedy is there – and of course the comical villains. It’s one of those things people get involved in. We can be in rehearsals doing all the gags but we don’t know if they work until we get there with the extra member of the cast - which is the audience. They are invaluable; what they give us is so important for us to feed off.

Connor: Absolutely... what he said!

Connor, it’s quite a long way back home to Plymouth, has Les invited you for Christmas dinner?

Connor: Les, with his open heart, already has done!

Les: And I will be cooking too!

Thinking back on your time on Corrie, what was your most memorable scene together?

Connor: There’s a couple isn’t there, the builders yard scene and the very funny scene when you confront me with Eileen with the crutches.

Les: The final scene was amazing, and we even filmed it on my birthday at 1am. I was freezing and lying down but I just had the best time - I even had a birthday cake from the crew! It was wonderful to do my final scene with my mate.

Do you miss the Street?

Les: Oh yeah.

Connor: Definitely, but in our business or the circus as I call it, we’re brought together for such a short and intense period of time that we make great friends, and we don’t have to see each other every week but we stay in

touch. (Continued...)

Do you both still keep up with the soap?

Les: I do, I tune in and out. I’ve been out of the country doing a project for a while so it was amazing to just get back and go ‘what’s going on?!’. You’ll see new characters that you don’t even know but then you’ll spot characters like Rita and you know where you are again! Then you can invest in the new characters. That’s the great thing about Coronation Street - it’s ever changing but as a viewer you can just dip back in and catch up.

Connor: Similarly for me, I’ll be busy down at my studio painting, so I’ll just do a binge and catch up.

Les: What’s really surprising is when Gail mentions Michael and you think ‘Oh that was me!’ and everyone is always mentioning Phelan of course. We’re still part of the fabric of it which is nice.

Will your friends at Corrie be coming to watch Cinderella?

Connor: No doubt!

Les: I did The Addams Family last year at the Lowry and it was a bigger press night than it was in London because everybody from Corrie came along. Everyone I loved from the show was there, so I’m sure they’ll be coming to this as well.

What do you hope to work on in the future?

Connor: Nothing immediately in the future but Cinderella is the perfect counterpoint and what a great way to end the year on. We’ll see what next year brings!

Les: I’ve got something which I’ve already filmed but I cant talk about and I know that’s going out in the new year, but apart from that I don’t know what my next job is after Cinderella. But that’s what our business is about, it’s feast or famine. There can be nothing for a while and then suddenly your agent can call and you have three offers on the table. It’s scary and it’s exciting - you never know what’s around the corner.

What advice would you give to aspiring actors?

Les: The best bit of advice I ever heard for aspiring actors came from Richard Briers. He said it’s not enough to want to be an actor, you have to need to be an actor. You’ve got to be able to put up with rejection, sit and wait for the phone to ring and not know when the next job is coming, no matter how well trained you are. If you can deal with that, then hold in there, your chance will come. If you find something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.

Connor: I would echo that completely, just to follow your bliss, be that an artist, poet or musician, anything vocational. Keep your chestnuts small, and by that I mean make sure your lifestyle doesn’t demand that your at the coalface everyday as you have to live a precarious life. One of Winston Churchill’s most famous speeches apparently just included three words ‘Never Give Up’.

All I want for Christmas is…?

Connor: Wow, what a great question…

Les: The day off! Just the one day where I can get up with the kids and watch their faces as the day flies by.

Connor: All I want for Christmas is some really good news for a person I care very much about.

Finally, what’s your favourite Christmas cracker joke?

Les: What’s Santa’s favourite musical artist? Elfish Presley!

Connor: What’s an old snowman called? Water!

Les: What’s the Queen’s favourite show? The One Show!

Ruth Parkinson