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Shane’s in the panto zone! Andy Smith meets Shane Lynch. 
As one fifth of Boyzone, Shane Lynch larked around on stage while kids screamed at him. Now he’s preparing for panto in High Wycombe – so no change there then! He told us how the part of the Prince in Snow White is fitting in with his new TV career. Shane Lynch found fame as part of world famous boy-band Boyzone and recently starred in Channel 4’s The Games, which he won! Now playing Eli Knox in Sky One's Dream Team, he is destined to set hearts a-fluttering playing the dashing Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in panto in High Wycombe. You had a fantastic career in pop and now you have moved to panto. What are you doing!? Shane It’s a direction I’ve taken because I want to get in to acting. I am certainly a man who never grew up in stage school or anything, so I’ve got to learn. I’m applying this principal in my life that I solely believe that you have to lay a foundation for everything you do and I think this is a great foundation for me. I went into motor sport and yes, I had plenty of money, but I didn’t get into a Ferrari and start racing! What’s the point of a lot of power in a car when you don’t yet know how to drive a racing car. So I raced in Ford Fiestas and Fiat Uno’s, in 1.1s up to 1.6s then in 2 litres, then 3 litres and then 5 litres, and that is how you do it. I want to get into acting, I want to do movies and therefore I’m doing panto! So is this your first venture into acting? Shane No, I’m actually doing Dream Team at the moment, which is a Sky One programme. Originally I wanted to do the panto to get into the likes of Dream Team but it actually came up since I’ve been signed up to the panto. But to be honest, everyone who I have spoken to in Dream Team has told me that panto and the theatre is the way to go, so I have got the best of both worlds at the moment. The show runs for five and half weeks how are you going to cope with two shows a day? Shane I’m a hard working man, I’ll say I’m a labourer. If I was going to be on a brickie’s site then I’m the labourer. I like a bit of graft and that is what it is going to be - a bit of graft. How do you think you are going to maintain your energy levels? Shane Plenty of Red Bull!! But you’re going to need something more surely, especially with all those kids screaming at you? Shane I’m use to that! I had 10 years of it don’t forget! I’ve been on the stage before. We used to play a schedule not quite as hectic as what it is going to be in panto, but I think we had 36 to 40 shows in 28 days with Boyzone including matinees. I suppose it is a little bit different, but it has the same ideas. It’s the same screaming business just a different role. I’m the Prince as opposed to Shane Lynch from Boyzone doing his thing. Do you ever miss the days of being in Boyzone? Shane Of course I do, definitely. Like every job, when you are in it you adapt to your surroundings but eventually you think ‘I’m bored of this’ or ‘I don’t like it’ and you don’t want to get out of bed because you’re having a bad day. But as soon as you get out of it [the job] you think ‘ that was an amazing life, what am I doing out here let me back in’. I do miss it, I miss it a lot. What was the strangest thing you read in the press about your self whilst in Boyzone? Shane I still read strange things about me! There is always some truth in the matter, but it is the explosive headline which you wouldn’t word yourself, and it’s that which makes it strange. The majority of the time that is what happens to me. You’re working along side Anita Dobson. Were you ever a fan of Eastenders as a child? Shane Not particularly. I think I have been more so in the recent years, but I certainly do remember her from it. She is an old pro and that is the bottom line. I’ve got a lot to learn from her and it is great for me to do that. I once saw a clip of you crashing your racing car off the track at great speed. What goes through your mind? Shane To be honest, as much as it happens so quickly, it actually feels very slow. I know that is a strange thing to say but it happens so quickly you can’t get out of it happening, and then it all slows down in motion when you’re hitting walls and other cars. But luckily, in the last five years, I’ve probably had maybe five accidents which is only one a year and that isn’t a lot when it comes to motor sport. And in amongst that I’ve had many first, second and third places. You are either on the edge of winning or on the edge, and you get it slightly wrong. You can see Shane hopefully getting it right at the Wycombe Swan Theatre from 10 December 2004 - 16 January 2005. BBC
Shane's Dream Team Yesterday, Ex-Boyzone Singer Shane Lynch began filming on his first appearance in Sky One's football drama Dream Team.
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