Out of the five Light Entertainment shows I have or will be in, I have played the Dame in four of them. Part of me feels I should be more upset by this typecasting than I am, but I’m just so damn good in the role it’s hard to argue.

Daming came rather naturally to me; I was asked if I could read a few lines at the audition and an entire personality suddenly emerged complete with voice, posture and ability to walk in heels. That one character (Dame Shirley) served for my performances with USLES but since an Edinburgh show is expected to be, you know, of passable quality I felt I should put a little more work into this act.

Initially I was only going to share the designing of the most important aspect of my character but then I thought I might expand it into a series detailing my transformation from this:

Into something a little more feminine. Clearly no easy task. I mean, just look at that chiselled jaw, the sharp cut of the suit and the undoubtedly rippling muscles barely contained underneath…sorry, got lost in my eyes for a second there. Anyway, at worst this can be my ticket to a fabulous prize and at best this could be a reference for future aspiring dames but let’s see how this goes.

As I have an unhealthy amount of free time on my hands and I can’t spend all of it ripping out mass loads of weights, the first instalment of “The Making of a Dame” should be up soon.