WOS TV: Up Close With … Dan & Jeff of Potted Panto

Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner have become favourites in the world of family theatre since creating Potted Potter in 2006. Their crafty plan to fit all the Harry Potter books into a one hour show paid off handsomely with critical acclaim and sell out audiences at that year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Two years later they launched Potted Pirates and this Summer a third show, Potted Panto, premieres. In between this they have been storytelling on Blue Peter and presenting on CBBC.

Known to their fans as Dan and Jeff, they are engaging, witty company and clearly close: even finishing off each other’s sentences. Entertaining families is a small and thus very profitable part of the Festival yet they seem take their work seriously and are keen to avoid patronising their young audiences. Although perhaps underestimated by other parts of the comedy scene, they argue nothing is as demoralising as the crushing embarrassment of being heckled by a 7 year old.

Potted Panto plays at the Pleasance Courtyard, 4-30 August at 14.50.