PARA-BADMINTON player and familiar face at Asda in Wellington Andrew Martin is back home this week after performing with the stars in a West End panto.

Andrew has been playing Silly, one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, in Snow White alongside Dawn French, Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Gary Wilmot and Paul Zerdin.

Andrew said: “It has been a fantastic experience not only to be in the panto but to be performing at the London Palladium.

“It is an amazing feeling being on that stage in front of 2,400 people at the biggest panto theatre in the country.”

Lots of celebrities including Dame Barbara Windsor and Matt Lucas attended the gala press night.

Andrew is signed to an acting agency and this was his sixth panto after performing in Dunstable, Yeovil, Croydon, Canterbury and Sheffield in previous years.

He added: “I had rejected a couple of offers this year but when I was offered Snow White, ‘I thought I’m not turning this down’.”

He had to leave Asda to do the panto and will try to go back there if a job is available after the panto finished on Sunday.

The acting role, often involving two performances a day, will also help fund his sporting ambitions. His main focus for the first part of the year is to qualify for the Para-Badminton World Championships in Basel in Switzerland in August.

That will involve back-to-back tournaments in Turkey and Dubai in March, and another tournament in Canada in May. He hopes to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics next year.