CHRISTOPHER Biggins blames Darlington Civic Theatre for changing his life after persuading him to make his debut as a panto dame back in 1977... and he's loved every moment.

"I started my career in Darlington 40 years ago, so the theatre is terribly important to me. It was run by the best theatre manager in the world Peter Tod and I ended up doing three years of pantomime there. I owe a lot to the Civic," he says.

"Peter and Jamie Phillips, who was a brilliant pantomime producer, plus Dougie Squires, who directed it, asked me to come and do Mother Goose. I kept turning it down and said, 'I don't know if you know, but I'm an actor I don't do pantomimes. They are well beneath me'. They kept asking me and asking me and the money was so huge I had to do it and I've never looked back. They started me off on my fantastic pantomime career," says Biggins, who had found fame through playing baddies like Nero in I Claudius and naughty vicar Ossie Whitworth in the original Poldark.

"It was money talking. I thought, 'I can't turn this down. I'd be a fool. I've got to try it at least'. I was about 26 years old and until then all the pantomime dames I'd seen were about 110. So, I was quite insulted that they could see me playing a pantomime dame. Well they had more foresight than I did and I thank them from the bottom of my heart and thank the Civic Theatre."

He followed up playing Mother Goose with Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittington and Dame Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk.

"I had a wonderful training, and I worked with Dougie Squires and Jamie Phillips, who were two of the best. I look back at pictures and I can't quite believe it. It was quite hysterical. There is no better theatre than the Civic and I'd like to come and keep on hosting a closing show while they are doing the refurbishment," he says.

Now Biggins is back at his favourite theatre to bring the curtain down on the Civic as host of Live At the Hippodrome, on Tuesday, which will see the venue go dark until the panto of 2017 under its new name of The Hippodrome. He'll also be visiting York on Saturday, June 18, to stage An Evening With Christopher Biggins as part of the York Pride festival.

The fact that the theatre is becoming the Hippodrome seems to have passed Biggins by.

"I had no idea they were changing the name. Well the Hippodrome is very good. I love the Civic, but I can say farewell and it changes my whole attitude because I think its a brilliant idea to get the old name back," he says.

The return of a name associated with Signor Rino Pepi, the managing director of the 1907 New Hippodrome and Palace of Varieties, who is said to still haunt the theatre, has Biggins reflecting on the ghost stories he's heard about Darlington.

"There is definitely a feeling sometimes when you're in a theatre late at night. You're the last one to leave and you walk across the stage and you glance into the auditorium and there's definitely a sense that something has happened here. You can't quite put your finger on it, but it's extraordinary."

His advice to himself on playing host on Tuesday is to enjoy the occasion as much as he can, "because if I enjoy it then the audience will. I think we've got lots of surprises for the audience and lots of familiar faces coming back. I think it's going to be great."

Biggins is also an admirer of York and he admits to being a fan of the city's legendary Theatre Royal pantomime dame Berwick Kaler. "I think he's been there almost as long as I've been doing pantomime. Berwick is an old friend of mine and I've directed him in many Shakespearean plays and I adore him. He's a legend in his own lifetime. There is nothing better than going to see a Berwick Kaler pantomime. In fact, two years ago I was in Hull and I made a guest appearance on film in his panto. I'm going to do my one-show up there plus a question and answer session," he says.

Do audiences ask him why he's nearly always referred to as Biggins? "I've been called it off and on for some time and it is my real name. It's amazing, and I have that going for me. Then my agent made an announcement five years ago that I'd changed my name by deed poll, which was rubbish, but it was absolutely perfect. You say Sher, you say Madonna, you say Biggins," he jokes.

He doesn't mind being a national treasure now and says his relationship with the British public leaves him flattered. "It's interesting. I've been going in the business for nearly 50 years, after starting in Salisbury Rep and sometimes I look at my CV and think, 'Have I really done all that?'. It's been an amazing career and I've absolutely loved it. It's nice now because I've started to think about slowing down and doing less. There's no mortgage to pay, which is the great thing, and you thinkl 'How did we manage to pay that huge amount for 25 years'?"

He reveals that in the last two years he's seen 50 friends die. "I put it down to being older and having too many friends. It's terrifying. I now have a couple of jobs every week and the rest of the time I can enjoy myself with friends and my partner and have a good time."

* Live At The Hippodrome: Tuesday (May 31), 7.30pm. Tickets: £20 and £18. Box Office: 01325-486555.

Also appearing: Mari Wilson, Matt Edwards, DarlingtonOS, The Vocal Soul Community Choir, Beth Stobbart, ArtsSpark Youth Dance, ArtsSpark Youth Theatre, The Northern Echo's Chris Lloyd and Kate Weston