Katherine MacAlister laughs along at a popular Christmas cracker

A fierce contender for Oxford’s most popular festive offering must go to the Father Christmas children’s show at the BT Studio, which sells out every year and is already fully booked until December 24.

Now in its fifth year, the Father Christmas franchise train shows no sign of slowing down, crammed as it is with toddlers loving every second.

And with four plays on rotation, written by Oxford’s Helen Eastman, we are back to square one in its fifth year, with Dear Father Christmas, her first offering.

It depicts Father Christmas failing to get out of bed on Christmas Eve because his best friend, the polar bear has gone to help family and friends trapped in the Arctic by global warming and melting ice caps.

When hapless Ella the Elf takes matters into her own hands and it all goes horribly wrong, she inadvertently guides the polar bear home, kicking Father Christmas into gear, just in time.

And with Clive Duncan, the new Father Christmas at the wheel, this year looks set to be as popular as ever. “It’s a happy ending because there will be a Christmas after all, but sadly the plot is more prescient this year than any,” he says.

So is Clive ready for the 2/3 show-a-day schedule? “I think of it more as a show with three acts and lots of breaks,” he laughs.

“I get the evenings off so it’s better than the pantomime dame, although he gets a lie-in, so it’s all swings and roundabouts.”

With such an impressive reputation at stake, is Clive feeling the pressure?

“The shows have a really good reputation which is why they sell out so quickly and I’d much rather play to a full house than an empty one.

“Actors talk at great length about ‘the art of the play’ but this is the real thing. It’s all about making work that is friendly enough for small children and to interact with the audience so that they come along on the story with you.”

“Pantomime can be a bit bewildering for small children, and this is a bit gentler. But I love small children and have worked with them on many an occasion, as well as having had some of my own,”Clive tells me,“so that doesn’t phase me I the slightest,”

The ability to grow a white beard seems to have been the real deal breaker though, “although sadly nothing on top,” Clive, 60, chuckles.

“They didn’t want someone wearing a false beard because children can spot a fake one a mile away, but luckily mine grows white. It’s one of the benefits of old age,” he chuckles.

Sounds like the perfect man for the job then: “It’s nice to be working at Christmas and to be back in Oxford.

“Because while theatre should be magical for children, in being so it is also magical for the actors too, to see how the audience responds.

“So I’m sure the entire five weeks will pass in a blur, and as Shakespeare was supposed to be performed in the round with people shouting at the stage, I’m sure this will be very similar, and as robust,” Clive smiles.

“The BT is such a lovely cosy, intimate theatre,” he adds before emitting a round of ho-ho-hos and getting back to work.

Where and when
Dear Father Christmas runs until January 3 at the Burton Taylor Studio 
01865 305305 or www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Ages 3-6