CHRISTMAS came early for Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s Pantomime Dame played by lifelong Latics fan Richard J Fletcher,

For Dame Dotty Trott visited Boundary Park, home of Oldham Athletic, Boundary Park, to meet some of the players and enjoy a special tour.

In Oldham’s renowned pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk Dame Trott is a lifelong Latics fan who makes her first entrance in a specially designed Oldham Athletic dress complete with a meat pie sausage roll wig and an Oldham Athletic mobile phone.

The delightful Dame met Latics players: Jamie Stott, Alex lacovitti, Tom Hamer and captain David Wheater on the pitch at the end of training. Dame Trott then enjoyed a tour of the grounds, calling her son Jack (…and the Beanstalk) from the Home Team box and finding her own mini Chaddy the Owl for Christmas.

Richard, who has been a part of the Coliseum’s pantomime family since 2008, said: “It’s great to be back at Boundary Park. When I was a schoolboy I used to play our home games for Oldham Town on the astroturf here on a Saturday morning, so it feels like coming back home.”

Richard, from Greenfield, grew up watching the Coliseum’s pantomime with Kenneth Alan Taylor and Jeffrey Longmore playing the Dame in the 1980s and 90s. He trained in physical theatre at drama school and lived in London for 20 years, before returning to play the panto comic at the Coliseum for 11 years before making his debut as the Dame this year.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs at Oldham Coliseum Theatre until Saturday, January 11. Details from www.coliseum.org.uk or 0161 624 2829