IT’S not often you see a Panto character sprint from a theatre rehearsal room to take over the running of her own shop.

But then Carli Norris only has herself to blame, choosing the busiest time of year for actors and retailers to juggle both jobs.

To be fair, the Mercury’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wasn’t part of the plan up until a few months ago when the Colchester theatre approached her agent to be in the production.

She explains: “The plan was to continue the setting up of an events company. Dom (Carli’s partner and former Dream 100 presenter Dominic Atkins) had only just left the radio and that’s what we were doing. I’m also a mum of two and of course still running the shop.”

That’s Chocodolly in Sir Isaac’s Walk, a vintage clothes and accessories business, which in one form or another originally brought her to this corner of Essex more than ten years ago.

She moved to Thorpe-le-Soken with her then husband, fellow actor Gary Turner, who like Carli, also now lives in Colchester. There she transformed part of her home into ‘Kitty’s Cottage’, an interiors shop which then transformed into a cake-making operation when she discovered a gap in the market as a cupcake teacher.

She says: “When I had Kitty’s Cottage I always used to make little roses and dollies to put on shop-bought cakes and people used to ask to buy them.

"I put up a load of Cath Kidston wallpaper up, covered some old tables with cloth and made it all look as kitsch as possible, put one of my home-baked cakes in the middle, advertised my class and got 15 bookings straight away. It just grew and grew.”

Gazette:

Looking chic at Kitty's Cottage in Thorpe-le-Soken

Born in Barking, Carli’s family moved to Harlow when she was young before ending up in Woodford in East London where she took a Performing Arts Course at Epping Forest College in Loughton.

Picking up scholarships to both RADA and LAMDA, she chose the former from which she graduated in 1997.

Since then Carli has had a number of high profile roles, starting off on stage playing Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Albery Theatre directed by Ray Cooney and then for the Peter Hall Company, when she appeared in the premiere and tour of Simon Gray’s Just The Three Of Us with Prunella Scales.

But it’s perhaps on television that Carli has had her most success playing a number of characters on some of the country’s most popular drama series including EastEnders, Holby City, Doctors and Hollyoaks.

Carli says: “When I wasn’t acting I didn’t miss it because I love making the cakes, but when I went back into acting with Hollyoaks I remembered why I went to RADA and how all the auditions are worth it.

“And I’m loving being in another panto. It’s been a while and every lunch I have to run down the street to take over from Dom who is looking after the shop for me while I’m doing this.

“Initially when I was first asked I thought there’s no way I can do this as well as everything else that’s happening, and I had promised the girls after EastEnders I would take a break, but then it’s just up the road and my daughters would probably quite like seeing their mum in a local panto.

"Gary has been playing Captain Hook for the last few years and I’ve always taken them to see him in panto ever since they were very young, so they’re used to seeing one of us on stage at Christmas.

"Fortunately he doesn’t start until later this year so he’ll get an opportunity to see me in this. The girls are particularly thrilled. They’ve been helping me learn my lines and are loving it.”

So Carli agreed and it looks like she made the right choice.

Gazette:

James Dinsmore and Carli in rehearsals

“It was the script,” she continues, “it’s hilarious and then when I met Dale (Superville) and Ash (Antony Stuart-Hicks who plays the Dame), and the rest of the cast I knew I had made the right decision.”

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Carli plays the Evil Enchantress, a part she’s absolutely revelling in.

“My first panto was in Mansfield when I played the Mermaid and Mrs Darling for three shows a day,” she reveals. “If I’m honest it wasn’t the best introduction to panto.

“This is great. I have to say I am particularly evil. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more evil villain in a panto but of course it’s so much fun to play, and the dresses I get to wear are incredible.”

All of which has come as a bit of a surprise to Carli.

“It wasn’t the panto I was expecting,” she tells me. “I’ve really only been in Colchester for the last two years and since then I’d been busy with telly work to catch the pantomimes here at the Mercury so I had no idea what they would be like.

“I have to say it’s been a wonderful revelation. The staff, the facilities, back stage, costume, all incredible. I would love to come back next year and do another one it’s been such a lovely experience.

“With all the television I’ve done in recent years, it’s also been rather lovely being back on the stage. It’s where I first started and there’s nothing like it really. Bring on the first night, that’s what I say, and if people are thinking of going to a panto in London, come to the Mercury instead - it’s going to be amazing.”

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Mercury Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester.

Tomorrow until January 14. Various times.

£28 to £11.50 plus discounts. To book, click here or call 01206 573948.