Panto Dame meets Oldham Athletic heroes

Christmas came early for Oldham Coliseum Theatre's Pantomime Dame when she visited the football team she's supported all her life.

Dame Dotty Trott - a.k.a. Richard J Fletcher - went to Boundary Park, the home of Oldham Athletic, to meet some of the players and enjoy a special tour. 

In Oldham's renowned pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, Dame Trott is a lifelong Latics fan who makes her first entrance in a specially designed Oldham Athletic dress, complete with a meat pie, sausage roll, wig and an Oldham Athletic mobile phone.

The delightful Dame met Latics players Jamie Stott, Alex lacovitti, Tom Hamer and captain David Wheater on the pitch at the end of training.

Dame Trott then enjoyed a tour of the grounds, calling her son Jack (…and the Beanstalk) from the Home Team box and finding her own mini Chaddy the Owl for Christmas. 

Dame Dotty Trott is played by Oldham pantomime legend Richard J Fletcher, who has been a part of the Coliseum’s pantomime family since 2008.

Richard said: “It’s great to be back at Boundary Park. When I was a schoolboy, I used to play our home games for Oldham Town on the astroturf here on a Saturday morning, so it feels like coming back home.”

Richard, from Greenfield, grew up watching the Coliseum’s pantomime with Kenneth Alan Taylor and Jeffrey Longmore, playing the Dame in the 1980s and 90s.

He trained in physical theatre at drama school and lived in London for 20 years. When he returned to Oldham, he joined the Coliseum’s pantomime as the Comic. After 11 years as Oldham’s beloved high-flying, heel-kicking Panto Comic this year, Richard plays the Pantomime Dame for the first time.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs at Oldham Coliseum Theatre until Saturday, January 11. Tickets can be booked on 0161 624 2829 or at www.coliseum.org.uk.