CHARLIE Hardwick is used to being booed on stage.

“When I did Christmas shows in Newcastle I was the Wicked Witch, always the baddie,” grins the former Emmerdale star. “This year I’m a wise-cracking mermaid. She's one of the good guys."

Charlie joins Billy Pearce, actor and singer Darren Day and S Club 7 and musical theatre star Jon Lee in this year's Alhambra panto, Peter Pan. She plays Mimi the Magical Mermaid in the show, and is looking forward to returning to Yorkshire, where she spent 11 years working on Emmerdale.

Fans will know her as feisty, outspoken Val Pollard, who was killed by shattered glass in a hall of mirrors following last year's dramatic helicopter crash - a demise which won Charlie the Best Exit award at this year's British Soap Awards.

"It was a great way to go, but I'm sad that Val is no more," says Charlie. "I felt very protective of her. She still gets a mention now and then in Emmerdale, so it feels like a part of her is still there.

"I miss Chris (Chris Chittell, who played Charlie's on-screen husband, Eric Pollard) very much. We were like a little family - rest assured my Emmerdale friends will be coming to see me at the Alhambra this Christmas!"

Playing Val earned Charlie a variety of soap awards, including Best Comedy Performance and Best On-Screen Partnership. Before Emmerdale she was in Byker Grove, filmed in her native North East, and has appeared in TV dramas including Our Friends In The North, The Royal and Catherine Cookson’s Tide of Life and Colour Blind. Her films include Purely Belter, Billy Elliot and The Scar, for which she won best actress at Monte Carlo Film and TV awards.

She started out taking plays into schools, and is passionate about making live theatre accessible to wider communities.

"After university I did theatre in education, tackling issues like racism and bullying in schools. The kids really engaged with it," she says. "It's the same with panto - children get totally immersed in what's happening on the stage, it's so important to get it right. One minute they're laughing, the next they're terrified. You can't just get up and act daft.

"Live theatre is like swimming with sharks but it's a wonderful thing to see audiences so engaged, especially children because they're the next generation of theatre-goers. I'm thrilled that there's going to be a special 'relaxed performance' of the panto for people with conditions such as autism. Theatre should be for everyone."

Produced by Qdos, the panto features a range of special effects, including flying, 3D surprises and an underwater journey involving the whole audience.

The show gives Charlie chance to flex her vocal muscles. As well as being a regular on Loose Women and a radio presenter, she sings in a band called Kissed. "I'll be up there belting out my songs - they should call me 'Ethel Mermaid'!" she laughs. "It'll be great to be on that Alhambra stage again; I was there in a play over 20 years ago, it's a fabulous theatre.

"Billy was on Emmerdale a few years ago - his photo is on the 'Hall of Fame' in the Woolpack - so I feel like we're old friends. He's fabulous.

"I have strong Yorkshire roots; my mum was brought up in an orphanage in Harrogate and of course I spent years here in Emmerdale, so I'm looking forward to spending Christmas here."

Peter Pan runs at the Alhambra from December 17 to January 29, 2017. Call (01274) 432000.