Auntie May is Top Dame
Allan Stewart wins Best Dame at UK Pantomime awards
Allan Stewart was recognised at the very best dame in all the Pantosphere this last Christmas season, for his turn as Dame ‘Auntie’ May McTrott in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Festival Theatre.
Stewart won the Stanley Baxter Award for Best Dame (sponsored by John Good), at the UK Pantomime Association’s annual Awards. Held at the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe on Sunday 19 April 2026, this was the fifth year of the awards.
Allan Stewart as Dame May McTrott in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Festival Theatre. Pic: Douglas Robertson
There were four Scottish winners at the annual awards. In the second of these, Johnny McKnight received the award for Achievement in Innovation.
According to the citation, “His brilliance as a writer, director and performer over more than twenty years has joyfully transformed pantomime through groundbreaking productions, bold inclusivity and creative courage.”
McKnight has written more than thirty pantos and played eighteen dames. And beside pure panto he was involved with Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming in writing both the book and lyrics for the hit re-tread of The High Life (★★★★★ Flying) which is still on tour.
She’s Behind You
He was also a huge hit at EdFringe 2025 with his personal memoire She’s Behind You, (★★★★★ Utter joy). A funny, sad, personal and involving production, in it McKnight detailed his own – and panto’s – journey over the last two decades.
McKnight was also involved in the other two Scottish wins. He wrote, directed and stared in Weans in the Wood at the Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, which won Best Pantomime (Under 550 Seats). And he wrote Gallus in Weegieland at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, for which Kenny Miller won the Best Set award.
Allan Stewart, winner of Stanley Baxter Award for Best Dame, The Pantomime Awards 2026. Pic: Andrew Billington Photography.
Accepting his award on Sunday Night, Allan Stewart said: “This is fabulous! The Stanley Baxter Award: He was a real hero of mine, so this is wonderful. Really, really great.”
He added: “I was nominated last year and didn’t win, so I must really have improved in a year.
“When the nominations came out, I got a text from Christopher Biggins, another great dame, he just wrote, ‘Wow That is Fantastic’ – that is what ‘WTF’ stands for doesn’t it?”
Besides Stewart’s nomination, Jack and the Beanstalk received three other nods. Grant Stott was up for Best Villain for his Fleshcreep, but lost out to Nigel Harman at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre; while lighting designer Rory Beaton lost out to Nic Farman at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells.
The King’s panto, back at the King’s
The whole production, by Crossroads Pantomimes for Capital Theatres, was also nominated in the Best Pantomime over 950 seats category, but lost out to the in-house production of Sleeping Beauty at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.
This was the final year for the “King’s panto” at the Festival Theatre, while the King’s itself was being extensively refurbished.
Allan Stewart will be returning with Grant Stott and Jordan Young, in The Adventures of Pinocchio, which opens on Saturday 28 November 2026 and runs through to Sunday 17 January 2027. Tickets are already on sale here.
Further details of the other Scottish nominees are here: Edinburgh Panto up for Awards.
Awards website: www.pantomimeassociation.co.uk/.
For full list of nominees, click here.
Johnny McKnight as the dame in Weans in the Wood, Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling. McKnight won the Achievement in Innovation award and the production won Best Panto under 500 seats. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Kenny Miller, winner of Best Set at The Pantomime Awards 2026 for Tron Glasgow’s Gallus in Weegieland. Pic: Andrew Billington.
Johnny McKnight and the stage party for Weans in the Wood at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, winner of Best Pantomime under 550 seats. Pic: Andrew Billington Photography.
ENDS
