A familiar face on the stage of Theatre Royal Bath for over 25 years (for any Bathonian with a taste for panto) Jon Monie is tantamount to a local hero.
“I never had a plan, really, but I always wanted to be a performer”, says Jon. “As a kid I used to play records on my parents’ record player and I would do all the links in between the records because I wanted to be Terry Wogan.”
After his drama school training at Goldsmiths College, London, Jon formed a successful local comedy double act, Avent and Monie, with schoolfriend Graham Avent. He then “fell into TV presenting”, working for ITV West (then HTV). His time there included interviews with figures such as Shirley MacLaine, Gene Wilder, Sir Richard Attenborough, Dame Edna Everage and The Spice Girls just before their first big hit Wannabe.
His first appearance in Cinderella in Bath in 1996/97 – after he wrote to the theatre as the local face of HTV – saw him as Prince Charming’s right hand man Dandini, starring with Patsy Palmer, Derek Nimmo, Bella Emberg and, yes, Postman Pat. In 2001 Jon played in Aladdin in Bath with actor, writer and director (and panto dame) Chris Harris. A new friendship and partnership was born, with Chris asking to be paired with Jon in successive productions, establishing an 11-year relationship before Chris’ death in 2014.
“I have a lot to thank him for because he was my mentor”, says Jon.
Jon has played in Theatre Royal Bath pantos as comic characters such as Wishee Washee (Aladdin), Smee (Peter Pan), Lester the Jester (Sleeping Beauty) and Louis La Plonk (Beauty and the Beast). When pressed, Jon says his favourite role is Buttons in Cinderella, because of the unrequited love angle which makes him more three-dimensional than some of the other characters. “But it’s by no means Shakespeare, and there is not a great deal of depth to any of the characters I play, or indeed the way I play them!” declares Jon. Other acting work includes comedy improvisation with improv company Instant Wit and cameo roles in productions such as The Outlaws (as a hotel receptionist) and in Bridgerton (Series 2, as a solicitor) – “If you blink you’ll miss me!”
Jon also writes scripts for pantomimes and children’s plays and is currently working on a musical and an opera. This year in Bath, Jon is Muddles in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with a script written by Jon, playing with Olivia Birchenough, Nick Wilton, Emma Norman and George Olney.
Jon, who lives in Holt, is proud of being from the region. “I still think Bath is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever known. It’s got history, culture, warmth and charm as well as a bit of whimsy.”
One of the drawbacks of panto work is not having a Christmas holiday. “I haven’t had a Christmas in 20 odd years. Because we work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, Christmas Day is a chance to do my washing. I basically spend it lying on the sofa in my pants with a remote control in one hand and a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in the other. Which is probably quite similar to many people’s Christmas.”
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Main photograph by Joe Short, an award-winning photographer based in Bath. joeshort.com
