Until Sunday 11th January 2026, Martin Cabble-Reid (aka Kevin Cruise) is playing Buttons in Cinderella for his 16th pantomime season at Theatre Royal Windsor alongside Brogan McFarlane as Cinderella, Jay Worley as Prince Charming, Michael Praed as Baron Hard-up, and his fellow Theatre Royal Windsor regular Steven Blakeley as the Dame (who also wrote the pantomime). Alongside Basil Brush, Martin performed at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Butlin’s Big Weekenders and on P&O Cruises for The Basil Brush Show and Basil Brush Live and Unleashed. As Kevin Cruise, Martin was a contestant on Series 4 of Britain’s Got Talent in 2010, where he reached the live Semi-Finals, and he is the founder of the charity Kevin Cruise Foundation. We spoke to Martin about playing Buttons in the Theatre Royal Windsor pantomime Cinderella for his 16th pantomime season with the theatre, performing with Basil Brush at events such as Glastonbury Festival and Butlin’s Big Weekenders and being a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent as Kevin Cruise.

This year marks your 16th pantomime season at Theatre Royal Windsor, what do you enjoy most about performing in pantomimes and working at the theatre?

I absolutely love coming back to the Theatre Royal Windsor year after year: it is such a wonderful group of people, that have become family. This is now my 16th year, and the audiences, crew and staff are all like extended family to me: there is no better way to spend time at Christmas and New Year. It is such a special place, including the audiences: recognising the same faces night after night, show after show. Also, receiving messages from the audiences, saying they are bringing their children and then their children’s children: it is so wonderful.

What was it like meeting this year’s cast for the first time, which includes Brogan McFarlane as Cinderella, Jay Worley as Prince Charming and Michael Praed as Baron Hard-up, and reuniting with fellow Theatre Royal Windsor regular Steven Blakeley as Dame (also writer)?

There’s always a lot of excitement on launch day. It is so exciting to work with new people every year, but also when so many cast return, as in the ensemble. Lots have come back for their second, third and sometimes even fourth year and it is lovely to catch-up and see how everyone’s year has been.

What is it like interacting with the audience and seeing families getting involved?

It is so fun, especially the iconic 12 Days of Christmas. People know this song so well now and they know what we do: I have no trouble throwing out toilet rolls and getting them thrown back at me and the audience knows that this is OK, and I encourage it. We also know that people are desperate to grab the bra, so that they can say that they grabbed the bra during the 12 Days of Christmas, so we always have fun watching people trying to grab it and throw it back on stage. We just love the Windsor audiences.

We can probably get away with things here that we probably couldn’t do in any other town. They just know how we work, and we know how they work as an audience: it is such fun!

Why would you recommend booking tickets to see Cinderella in Windsor?

I genuinely feel that our pantomimes have a bit of everything. It has tradition, it has some modern elements, and it has songs that every generation will know: from songs that are in the charts right now, to those going back to the 70s and 60s. It is a mixture of everything: whether costumes or wigs, it’s just fun for all the family. And what’s better than to be in the shadow of Windsor Castle, that just adds a little more magic, especially when the panto is Cinderella.

How was it performing at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Butlin’s Big Weekenders and on P&O Cruises with Basil Brush, and what is it like seeing the audience response to The Basil Brush Show and Basil Brush Live & Unleashed?

I absolutely love touring around the country during the year: from Butlin’s to Parkdean, to cruise ships. It keeps my job varied, which I absolutely adore. I love doing different things, but this is what makes panto so special. It is coming back to a theatre for eight weeks, where I can unpack my suitcase, and I don’t have to drive or travel anywhere: it is a lovely treat at the end of the year.

I love my job, and I work hard at it, and I am proud of what I have achieved, and what we’ve achieved with the Windsor panto. Let’s hope that it continues, because these are troubling times in the entertainment world, as it is with the rest of the world. But we keep trying to make things bigger and better and hoping audiences continue to come back year after year.

How was your time as a contestant on Series 4 of Britain’s Got Talent in 2010 and what was it like reaching the live Semi-Finals?

I had the most wonderful time on Britain’s Got Talent. I loved every second of it. I know that people have various degrees of enjoyment when they do a TV show such as that, but I absolutely loved it, and I was treated impeccably from start to finish. I had a great time, and it certainly launched my career and opened doors that wouldn’t have been otherwise opened, especially as it was 16 years ago, and telly then was much more different. These reality shows were still watched by so many people. It is very different nowadays, so I think myself very lucky.

What are some of your favourite highlights of your career so far?

For me, one of them was being on one of the buses for the Queen’s Jubilee with Basil Brush. Driving around London, waving at the crowds and then watching the Queen come out with an unexpected appearance on the balcony was very special. I was stood next to lots of famous people, including some people that I had done pantomime with, so I felt like I belonged there, because I was with people that I knew: it was really special.

Another highlight was performing our grown-up Basil Brush show in the cabaret tent at Glastonbury Festival, closing the tent on the Sunday evening. It was packed full, with 3,000 people, and we had the honour of being the last act on. Seeing that I used to try and crawl under the festival security gates as a child from my Granddad’s farmland in Glastonbury, to then being able to perform, was very special indeed. Another moment to be thankful for my job.

You are the founder of the charity Kevin Cruise Foundation, can you tell us about this?

It is a wonderful small charity. We are celebrating 10 years next year, and over the nine years we’ve been running we’ve raised over £70,000 for over 17-18 local charities. We’ve purchased over 4,000 pantomime tickets for Theatre Royal Windsor, Braywick in Maidenhead and Norden Farm Centre for the Arts for people to enjoy panto. People who can’t afford pantomime tickets, that are having a hard time, struggling or maybe there is illness within the family. We are so proud of what we do. We also have scholarships, which means we are funding at the moment between 10-15 places for talented children to attend Saturday morning performing arts school. It isn’t just about learning to sing, dance and act, it is about building confidence, spending time with people that love the same thing, finding their tribe and giving them the confidence in life to move forward.

I’m so proud of my charity and this year even more, because we have put a small team together to really go out there and get fundraising going. Especially now that we are also trying to fund and organise relaxed performances in theatres, especially for pantomimes, because we believe that everybody deserves the right to enjoy pantomime, and a relaxed performance means that people who ordinarily may find theatre triggering can go along as well. We love supporting this.

Where does your love of performing come from and how did you originally get into it?

There are no performers in my family, we’ve even looked back for years: I was hoping there would be some Danish jester in my mix, but no, nothing but stone masons run in my family. However, my nan was the landlady of my local pub. She was very much an old-school landlady, where she would put her face on and go out and enjoy the night, chatting to punters, as that’s what she’d say a landlady should do. She was the one who would always organise parties, she would get into fancy dress and people say I have her teeth, and I think I have her personality. She was a wonderful woman, however a lot of my family, my parents, grandparents, cousins, nieces and nephews, have run pubs and been publicans, which I think is a bit of a performance in itself, and so I think it comes from there.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I love rambling, walking my dogs and cooking with my husband. I love rambling and walking: it is one of the things I do to switch-off. I’m a trained mindfulness teacher and so I love meditating and spending time in nature, which is very special for me.

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www.kevincruise.co.uk/