ENTERTAINER Bobby Davro and the cast of Cinderella are indulging in a spot of celebrity speed dating.

Sitting around tables at Milton Keynes Theatre the scene rapidly descends into chaos as comedian Bobby begins interviewing mate Anthea Turner while Linslade lass Louise Dearman chats up her Prince Charming, A1's Ben Adams.

They are having a ball as they get together to launch the venue's spectacular pantomime which opens on December 4.

Joining the cast will be Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney, one of the last surviving members from movies' golden era, who is playing Baron Hardup, but it is Bobby who is holding court at the show's official launch.

He has nearly 30 years experience on TV and on the club circuit making people laugh, entertaining them with a song and enthralling audiences with impressions. In 2006 he moved into serious acting as lovable cockney rogue Vinnie Monks in EastEnders.

"This is my 28th pantomime and I love it," he said in-between jokes. "The 20th production of Cinderella that I've done and I'm still getting away with playing Buttons! But for how many more years ?

"This is a great tradition and a different form of entertainment. It's the way you work pantomime and it's an art form that you have to learn. It's taken me years and I'm still learning.

"I'm the loose cannon in Cinders. The show is based on a story with lovely costumes and actors and I'm the anarchist, I'm the only one allowed to come out of the part and have some fun.

"The secret of a good Buttons is someone who can go on and bring the audience in, to pick on people in the audience to a point where it doesn't disrupt the show but includes them.

"That's the skill of a good Buttons. I'll use that and pick on people and I'll talk to people in the front row and I love it.

"Buttons is my favourite character out of all the pantos I've done. As much as the comedy I love the pathos in it. Buttons never ends up with Cinderella, she always falls in love with the Prince. She loves Buttons but as a brother and he can't figure that out. He's heartbroken.

"There's a lovely bit in the middle where he sings a sad song. You can make the mums and dads and kids laugh and the next you can make them cry and that's important."

Bobby hopes his three daughters, Marnie, nine,Tierney, 12, and Brittany, 14, will come and see the show.

"My nine-year-old still loves pantomime, the 12-year-old likes it but my oldest doesn't really think it's cool to see daddy dressed in tights!"

After Christmas Bobby is strapping on the skates to take a turn on TV's Dancing On Ice – but he's not supposed to say officially.

"I'd only do a reality show if it taught me a skill and I've never ice skated before. Now I can go forwards and backwards!

"I'm doing the show I'm not allowed to talk about in January and February, depending on how far I go.

"I will take it seriously. I plan to work very hard at it and want to go as far as I can. Then I may be lucky enough to be included in the tour.

"I'd like to do some more straight acting. EastEnders was a nice experience for me but they didn't build the part up and there wasn't enough in it.

"I was getting incredibly bored. TV looks glamorous and when you're in it, it makes you incredibly famous so that when you walked down the street people kept saying:'All right Vinnie?' I still get it now.

"But once you leave it's quite different. I was just getting the hang of it. I was a bit wobbly at first, a bit intimidated by all the actors, but when I realised I could hold my own, I got my confidence and started doing some good stuff.

"Most of my act these days is singing, a lot of corporate entertaining. I have a big Sinatra tribute show so we tour that around a bit, and my live shows are based on music impressions.

"I still do Cliff Richard, Elton John, Simply Red, Sting, and people like that, so singing has become more important than the joke telling.

"But I love it all – except dancing!"

Bobby says trying to keep in work is getting harder as the clubs disappear and TV drops traditional variety shows.

"There's not many traditional entertainers left. There's Bradley Walsh, Brian Conley and myself. We have taken over from the older generation like Des O'Conner and Bruce Forsyth. Of course the young comics rule the roost but they don't want to do panto.

"The shows on TV like Britain's Got Talent are fantastic shows but using the amateurs keeps the professionals off and it is they who need the show-cases for them to earn their living.

"The people you see on that show will probably have one or two years and then they'll be moved aside to have the next people come through.

"It's the professional people who need vehicles to work on and they're not there any more.

"If you can't bake a cake or wood-stain a floor or dig a garden up you can't get on television or you have to do a reality show like I'm doing."

Cinderella runs from December 4 until January 17. For tickets contact the box office 0844 871 7652 or go on-line www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes