WHY is Tony Roper returning to panto – his first in five years, and at an age when great Dames are hanging up their hob-nailed boots?

It all came about when Tony (the youngest-looking 76 year-old man ever to wear a trashy dress) had a cosy chat at the beginning of the year with Nesbitt chum Gregor Fisher.

“We were in Gregor’s dressing room during the last days of the panto run and I asked him if he was going to come back,” says Tony.

“He said he was and I said ‘That’s brilliant’. What’s the panto?’ He said Cinderella and I said ‘You’re playing Cinderella?’ And he laughed and said ‘’Naw, I’m an Ugly.’

“Then he added ‘Fancy being the other one?’ And my first reaction was ‘No, I’m seventy five. I don’t think I could do it.’

“But he tried to coax me and I went off and thought about it. I spoke to my wife Isobel and she said ‘Panto? At you’re age. You’re off your head.’”

Tony believed Isobel to be correct in her diagnosis. Why take to the stage again, learn all those lines, all those routines. And it’s not as though money were an issue.

“And here’s the thing; I’m not one of those guys who wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘I really need to act’. If I didn’t act again in my life it wouldn’t bother me.

“I get offered things quite often, to do things like re-runs of Porridge and I think ‘Why bother? Just leave it alone.’”

Yet, he did give the panto idea more thought.

“I did, and I decided I wanted to do it. It was really the thought of working with Fisher again that pulled me towards panto.”

The bromance is a delight to witness. The pair are closer than ever, having survived seventeen years together in the trenches that is the the Rab C. Nesbitt sitcom, playing Rab’s pal and occasional nemesis Jamesie Cotter.

Roper and Fisher met back in the seventies in Dundee.

“I had just come back from a tour of America to work at undee and Gregor was working there as part of a school’s company.

“He was in the Wizard of Oz, and had a really small part, but I coulnd’t take my eyes off him.

“Everytime I tried to look at someone else my eyes came back to him. And I thought ‘Jeez, that little b****** really has something.”

The pair went on to work in Midsummer Night’s Dream and the rapport began.

By the time they came to work with Rikki Fulton in Scotch and Wry as the comedy feeds, both really appreciated the talent of the other.

Yet, Tony has realised an added bonus in returning to pantoland. He gets a chance to exercise his writing talent.

The creator of the Steamie (the washhouse comedy telling poignant tales of hopes and dreams that’s back in 2017 for a Scottish tour) has been helping to make the Uglies even funnier.

“I write a bit so I felt I could help with the script,” says Tony, a former miner, brickie’s labourer and a bread van boy who changed his life when he signed up for drama college.

“Writing on bits of script, helping to improve them is area I really love. We’ll get together and knock stuff around and see how it plays out before taking it to rehearsals.

“And as for the performance, I’m now really looking forward to it.”

Will there be traces of Rab and Jamesie behind the Ugly make-up and garish frocks?

“There will be bits, but we won’t be playing them totally because that would get in the way of the script.

“And we won’t do Rab and Jamesie voices. What’s important is we get the characters of the Uglies sorted out.”

The pair have been taught how to play a Dame by the best.

“We were both tutored by Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy,” says Tony.

“I’ve never seen anyone better in panto.”

Cinderella is one the best pantos around. It has a great story and the Ugly Sisters offer a real opportunity for huge laughs.

Tony reckons there are more laughs to be found in Scottish Uglies.

“We do our Dames differently in Scotland. In England, the Dames tend to be men trying to look like women. Here, we don’t do that. We are always men dressed up badly.

“And I think it’s right not to because that would be insulting to women. If you want a woman, then hire a woman.”

Tony had a health scare a couple of years ago. But he’s now feeling great. The prostate cancer fear is over.

“I see people in the street and they ask how I am in concerned tones. But I can say I feel terrific. The doctors caught it in time and cut it out.”

His energy is good. “And you need energy for panto. But I’m all ready to go. And when you’re in the best panto in town at the best theatre and working with your pal, how can you not be energised?”

• Cinderella, The King’s Theatre, December 2 - January 8