The Groundling Theatre's Robin Hood's Sheriff of Nottingham stirs up some Pompey pantomime sibling rivalry

But amazingly, when he appears as The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood at The Groundlings Theatre, it will be his first ever panto.

Fortunately, there is someone close to hand he can turn to for help – his brother is Peter McCrohon, who, as a ‘Pompey Panto’ regular, is in Cinderella at The Kings Theatre.

‘This is the first time I've ever been in panto,’ says Daniel, ‘I've done all sorts of different things over the years. The closest thing I suppose I've done is melodrama, which is that sort of heightened reality. But I do a lot of murder mysteries and role-playing, so I suppose they all sort of relate. I've played a few baddies in my time though, so that's all been good experience for this!’

Is there any rivalry between the siblings?

‘Oh yes, definitely,’ Daniel chuckles. ‘Peter's a bit of a panto veteran though, I think this is his 21st, whereas it's my first. I actually had him over to dinner the other night and picking his brains – what sort of things are going to work and what wouldn't work, running some gags and adlibs past him.’

Will there be any sly digs at the bigger show? ‘Of course, but it's all very friendly and affectionate! If the timing's right, we'll get a group to go and see The Kings, and Peter was saying that some of them will be coming to see us as well. So we'll all be supporting each other.’

And Daniel’s looking forward to some good scenery-chewing as the villain of the piece. ‘Oh yes, definitely! I tend to overact at the best of times, but this time I'm actually being encouraged to do it,’ he laughs. ‘We've got a really good story – as with any panto, the story isn't always the main thing, but we do have a good story. What makes it different from most pantos is that we don't have a magical being in it, but we do have some very interesting characters.

‘We have a wonderful dame, Robin himself and Marian, and a wonderful comic. There's all the elements there, but there's usually a fairy or some sort of magical being, so perhaps it's a bit more story-based than some – the human characters have to get out of the mess for themselves, rather than relying on a fairy godmother!

Apart from me, it's quite a young cast and they're an absolutely lovely bunch of people to work with.’

Daniel was most recently at The Groundlings in June for Wonderland, but was also Jacob Marley in their production of A Christmas Carol during the ill-fated winter 2020 season.

‘It was a bit of a shame,’ he recalls, ‘We'd rehearsed it all up, and had about a week of shows, then we went into tier four lockdown so everything stopped. Myself and the chap playing Scrooge had been to see The Kings’ panto that afternoon, and of course they were closing down as well. It was very strange – the last day that we were all doing our stuff, and there were announcements to the audience about how we had to stop after this. But luckily we appear to be through that now...’

Robin Hood runs from December 8-31. All tickets £15 each, a family-of-four is £50. Go to groundlings.ticketsolve.com.