“good would always triumph over evil”

When I was little, we watched a Pantomime at the tiny local theatre every year. We sat in the stalls, so I never had the chance to get called to go up to sing and get some sweets.

When I was 10, I managed to belt out “Doe a deer” well enough to be a chorus girl in ‘Sinbad the Sailor’. I remember running across the stage in a sailor suit during a storm scene, and dancing with mops.

watching a man transform with makeup and padding into the Dame

For the next 6 years, Panto season started in September with rehearsals to learn songs and dance routines. One year I got the main part of Jenny in ‘Babes in the Wood’. It was magical; watching a man transform with makeup and padding into the Dame, the baddie sat in the green room eating Celebrations, Buttons going out in the interval to have a smoke.

we learned the conventions by heart

I would yawn in school the next day, shoulders itching from sequins. The title always changed but we learned the conventions by heart – boy and girl meet *cue love song* followed by an “it’s behind you” skit, and musical number.

I knew that good would always triumph over evil, and laugh about it later in the bar.