Former Corrie star tells MARION SAUVEBOIS why he is looking forward to his new festive role

FIDGETING on a loveseat, giggling to himself face buried in his phone, Ryan Thomas is not your surly thesp, only turning on the charm and flashing a pearly white grin for the benefit of the cameras.

Upbeat after an animated shoot with the panto gang at Cricklade House, he is like a little boy on the last day of school: ready for mischief and hoots.

"Where is Ryan?," the Wyvern Theatre director’s voice drifts in. Around the actor, theatre staff and journalists mill about helping themselves to tea and coffee. Unperturbed the former Corrie star, continues gurning at the screen, larking around, showing off his puffed sleeves and spangly cape to a friend, clearly in hysterics on the other end.

Eventually the director zeroes in on him and escorts the dashing Prince to the library for another round of photographs. Ryan springs up like a Jack in the Box, beaming from ear to ear.

If ever an actor was tailor-made to bend the rules, ad lib and wreak panto havoc, it is surely him.

“In a play or on TV you can’t change anything,” he tells me, even more energized after his second shoot. The phone is glued to his hand once more, pinging every so often.

“Here you can mix it up, play with the audience, improvise, you don’t know what’s going to happen day to day.”

Finally free from the blanket ban on pantomime strictly enforced on the Corrie cast, the actor jumped at the chance to see what all the fuss was about the minute he announced his departure from the soap which propelled him to stardom 16 years ago. And the opportunity to veer off script – firmly frowned upon on set - certainly appealed to his mutinous side.

“It’s really something that appealed to me when it was put on the table,” he continues. “All my friends have been in panto and I’ve been to see numerous pantos over the years. My daughter’s mum [and former Coronation Street co-star Tina O’Brien] was in a few. I reckon I’ve seen more pantos as an adult than as a child,” he smiles warmly. “It’s even more fun as adult. You get all the jokes, all the humour that went over your head a kid.

For all his experience navigating tight filming schedules, memorising lines at the drop of a hat and weathering any curveball, scandal or dramatic twist thrown his way by crafty scriptwriters, he is by his own admission a stage novice and will “need all the help [he] can get” to keep up with his seasoned co-stars’ antics, think on his feet and riff off spectators’ heckles.

“I talked to some friends about it and they said, ‘Yes, panto is relentless and it’s testing.’ We’ve got a week or so of rehearsals and then start with two shows a day. It will be very hard,” he confides. “But the cast will help me out, and get me through it.

“I don’t think anything can prepare you for pantomime. It’s something you’ve got to throw yourself into, learn as you go along and take as much of it as possibly can into your next job. I’m going to see how I get on but it will be a challenging experience from start to finish,” he adds.

Misgivings and jitters aside, treading the boards as Prince Charming will no doubt capture the hearts of thousands of little girls in Swindon – and earn him major dad points with his seven-year-old daughter Scarlett.

“My daughter is so excited,” he grins with pride. “She is going giddy about it,” adds Ryan, who fell in love with the stage when his “Nanna” enrolled him in acting classes at the age of eight.

While many dismiss pantomime as winter stop-gap until a bigger shinier project comes along, Ryan quite clearly see his panto debut as a springboard, a welcome break to let loose outside the confines of Corrie, which took over his life and career when he was cast as Jason Grimshaw out of drama school at the age of 16.

“I just want more life experience outside Coronation Street,” he says candidly.” There isn’t much more that I wanted out of it. Theatre, film, drama, plays, maybe even presenting, I want to do anything I can. That’s why I’m in this game, to improve myself.

“I never underestimate how much Coronation Street has done for me,” he hastens to give credit where it is due. “It’s a part of everyone’s lives. It’s been in mine from a young age, I watched it too. I just want to learn from it.”

That being said, he has drawn a line in the sand and is thoughts are firmly on the future.

“I’m in the next stage of my career,” he says thoughtfully. “I’m happier since I’ve left. It’s a big pressure that job, a lot goes with it. I feel more liberated. It’s a nice feeling."

Cinderella runs at the Wyvern Theatre from Saturday, December 10 to Sunday, January 8, 2017. To book go to swindontheatres.co.uk or call the box office on 01793 524481.