JULIET Cadzow can't help laughing as she talks about appearing in the buff in next week's Oran Mor panto, The Emperor's New Clothes.

The actress plays the Emperor in Dave Anderson's satirical take on the classic story of sychophancy.

And as we know, the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes at all when his sooky courtiers described his new outfits as if they'd been part of Stella McCartney's catwalk showcase.

Hence the fact that the Emperor has to appear in the all-together, "as naked as the day he was born."

"Well, it's not quite me in the flesh, so to speak," she says laughing.

"I will be covered in a fleshy fat suit, which has been made for us by the Citizens Theatre.

"So it will be very hot and I'll lose a lot of weight."

Does the fat suit come with all the, em, bits?

"Well, we were asked if we wanted the accoutrements," she says, smiling, "perhaps a couple of snowballs and a carrot attached, but we declined."

The Emperor may be a eunuch, but that's not to suggest the latest Oran Mor panto will lack potency.

As always, the script will be acerbic, politically aware and cheekier than the Emperor's bare backside.

Juliet, however, offers a raised eyebrow when she wonders how the audience will take to her Emperor.

Not that they won't love her; they have done countless times over the years as she played every panto role from wicked queen to principal boy.

"Men playing women, such as dames, is totally accepted," she says, "but a woman playing a man can be a little bit dodgy.

"Women can get away with playing principal boys, all legs and thigh-lengthed boots, but not actual men as such.

"I played a character once called Jack Ripper in the John Byrne play Cara Coco," she recalls. "I was in a pinstripe suit and had a little moustache and the men in the audience didn't like it at all."

She adds; "But I think this will be all right. The Emperor will be played as a cross between Prince Charles and David Cameron. So that should get a few laughs."

Juliet has little to worry about. She's a terrific actress and a panto veteran not only of the Oran Mor seasons (it's her twelfth) but in many of the major theatres.

"I think I've been in all of the Oran Mors except one when I was on a CBeebies tour," she says smiling of her stint in children's series Balamory, in which she played Edie McCredie.

"And I guess I've got an idea what works and what doesn't with the audience."

The actress rewinds on her introduction to panto.

"As a little girl I watched Jimmy Logan in panto, and I loved it," she recalls. "I loved the sparkle, the dancing girls. It was a magical world."

She adds, laughing: "I think some of that wore off a little when I appeared in panto as a professional. I'd be standing in the wings thinking 'Is this dance routine going to go on for ever?'"

Juliet also learned panto from the very best.

"I worked with Stanley Baxter in my first panto, Cinderella. I was the Fairy Godmother," she recalls of the Eighties appearance in Edinburgh.

"I was quite petrified, I recall. I think I got the job because Stanley likes his Fairies to be very proper, and I think my accent got me the job."

Stanley took panto very seriously.

"He'd work with props people for hours, for example, trying to get the most laughs of the technical jokes. And he'd be quite tough; no chatting in the wings, that sort of thing.

"But what he did worked. He was a fantastic professional."

In one panto season, Juliet landed the role of Stanley's understudy.

"I spent the whole stint terrified Stanley would go off sick and the audience would be left with me. Can you imagine the disappointment on their faces?"

Juliet smiles as she recalls how panto can be so demanding of an actor.

"It's a tough regime," she says. "Sometimes there's a lot of sitting around in a dressing room, especially if you're a fairy or a witch, and you have to concentrate hard when it's time to get on stage.

"I can remember one year being on stage at the King's in Glasgow in Cinderella and missing my cues regularly.

"The Wicked Witch was supposed to be on stage, she goes off - and immediately comes back on again.

"But I'd go off - and then head to my dressing room. And poor Jordan Young, who played my son, was left to stand their looking confused and ad-libbing 'Oh, dear! Where's mummy gone?'"

The Cadzow laugh kicks in again: "I kept doing this so many times that eventually someone would stand in the wings and bar me from heading towards the dressing room."

l The Emperor's New Clothes, Oran Mor, until December 20