He’s a killer on Emmerdale, but Tom Lister tells Steve Pratt that he’s got no complaints about his Sunderland panto debut in Peter Pan

TOM Lister is well-qualified to play the baddie Captain Hook in pantomime in Sunderland this Christmas.

Not that he’s naturally nasty.

Off-screen he’s friendly and well, nice in contrast to his on-screen antics as the evil King brother in Emmerdale where, as he admits, he tends to leave dead people in his wake.

Carl King wasn’t so conniving and scheming when he arrived in the village a decade ago.

“I’ve obviously got bitter and twisted over the years because of everything that has happened, over the members of his family that have died and how Carl has sold his soul to the devil.

“When he first came in Carl was a bit of a Lothario, a ladies’ man. He cheated on his wife and kids and then became obsessed with this girl Chas, which ended up with his killing his father and all this kind of stuff. So just an average family scenario in the Yorkshire Dales.”

Ah, his father who was thrown from an upper floor window on his wedding day one Christmas, given a push by son Carl who wasn’t entirely blameless either when brother Matthew collided with a car. I fear for the life of remaining brother, Jimmy. A picture from the 40th anniversary week showing them fighting doesn’t bode well.

Come December, Lister will be on stage at Sunderland Empire and, by hook and by crook, will be making life hell for Peter Pan as Captain Hook. He’ll have children’s TV presenter and stand-up comedian Sy Thomas as his sidekick Smee ,while battling Cbeebies presenter Katy Ashworth’s boy who never grew up. The cast also features Sarah Jane Buckley, who was crazy Kathy Kelly in C4’s Hollyoaks and has been touring as Eva Cassidy in Over The Rainbow, as Mrs Darling.

THIS is North Yorkshire-born Lister’s first panto. He hasn’t been able to do it in the past because he’s been tied up with the key Christmas storylines in Emmerdale.

“There are some great old actors in Emmerdale, like Shirley Stelfox and Paula Tilbrook, who’ve done it all, and Freddie Jones.

I love talking to those guys with all the stories when they were half my age or younger and how they toured all the theatres, did all these plays, worked with all these amazing national treasures.

“They talk about houses like Sunderland Empire with such fondness because it’s a stunning theatre. I haven’t been onstage yet, but I’ve wandered around the actual auditorium.

It’s beautiful. The whole set-up is fantastic. It’s going to be great fun.”

Meeting schoolchildren, parents and babies at the launch gave him his first taste of what it’s like to be a panto villain. He was subjected to a barrage of boos and hisses. Dressed in full pirate captain costume, he embraced the experience wholeheartedly. “I made four children cry and had a nice little argument with some primary school kids. Then a giggle with some others, so that was great,” he says afterwards.

Hook usually leaves the flying to Pan, but Lister says he’s up for anything. “I’m quite happy for him to start flying on the ship’s rigging,”

he says. “A friend is doing Bolton Octagon’s Hook and it’s a different adaptation. So he said, ‘I want Captain Hook to fly, it’s unfair that Peter Pan gets to fly on his own’. So he’s going to start flying around.”

It’s ten years since Lister was last on stage in The Accringinton Pals at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, which he remembers fondly for several reasons. For one thing, it helped get him the part in Emmerdale after the producer saw the show in Leeds.

It’s also his favourite play. “We studied it at college and I read the part of Ralph and thought I have to play this as some point because I could just see myself playing it – and yeah, it was a joy.”

After graduating from Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, he appeared in TV series including Heartbeat, Doctors and The Bill before moving to Emmerdale. What’s kept him there for nearly a decade?

“It’s just a beautiful place to work. The village is stunning. It’s unique in terms of all of the other soaps. They don’t have that kind of exterior location which has its own problems when the weather intervenes. Please don’t let it intervene in October for the live show.

“The location is up North and I’m from up North. It’s also the company of actors, crew and directors and all of the people who work in the production side of things, it’s a beautiful group. It’s just been so much fun. I started when I was quite young and the character has been involved in some great storylines over the years.”

HE was looking forward to the ten days of rehearsal the cast are having to prepare for the live episode next week because the entire cast are rarely together in the same place.

“It’s all filmed independent of everyone else and then put together in the post-edit. So to sit round and do a cast read-through is brilliant.

I haven’t done that since my very first job on Heartbeat. To sit around with everyone in plain clothes drinking tea or whatever and just reading the lines out loud will feel like theatre really, like you’re starting a play.”

He and some other cast members do get together for time to time – to sing in a band called Edna’s Hat. The line-up is Lister, Sian Reese- Williams (Gennie Walker), Dominic Brunt (Paddy Kirk), schedule producer Nada and a friend Steve Mosby, who’s got another band called Strangers In Paradise.

“We just fell into it. We did a charity gig two or three years ago and sang a few songs together.

It just progressed from there. We did a few gigs and we’ve got some Christmas light turn-ons to do,” he says.

The producers have announced that someone will die during the live episode, so I must ask if Carl is the victim. “You know I can’t tell you that,” says Lister, adding in the spirit of Carl King, “I could tell you but I’d have to kill you afterwards.”

  • Peter Pan: Sunderland Empire, Dec 13-Jan 6. Box Office: 0844-8713022 and atgtickets.com/sunderland