Would you pass the Butlin's Redcoat interview?

Butlin’s likes to draw out Redcoats’ talents, providing singing and dance lessons. Training also includes vocal coaching, circus skills and sign language to communicate with deaf guests. Some recent sessions were run by Chris Pilkington, CBeebies producer and make-up artists from West End show Wicked.

Many people who do the audition will also do the rounds of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Being a Redcoat was historically a good launchpad for a career as a TV presenter but nowadays Butlin’s finds more Redcoats move on to the West End. However, the average length of stay for a Redcoat has risen from two to three years, to three to four years.

Josh Anderson is among those who have stayed on. “I used to come on holiday every year to Butlin’s Minehead with my family. It was seeing the Redcoats and how friendly they were and the passion they had for their job that had us coming back year after year. I looked up to them and knew that I wanted to be one.”

He says: “The hardest part of the audition was the one-to-one interview; because I wanted that job so much I put pressure on myself. All the questions relate to how we work as a business, because people think it’s all singing and dancing, and certainly we develop that, but it’s all about customer service.”

Last November the tables were turned when Anderson helped at the latest Redcoat auditions, questioning applicants and teaching them a dance routine. “I remembered being in their shoes. You could feel the excitement, you could tell the people who really, really wanted it.”

He has also had the pleasure of giving successful candidates the good news. “Some people are so excited they start screaming down the phone,” he says.

Expecting to stay one year, Anderson is still with Butlin’s six years later and has a new role in talent development. “I’m a Butlin’s boy through and through,” he says.