Showing @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh until Sun 20 Jan

It’s business as usual at the King’s this year as our favourite panto trio dish up their latest razzmatazz. This year we are taken to Lochforest were Priscilla (everyone’s famous goose), begins to lay golden eggs and ensures the longevity of the village. But with unlimited wealth, pantomime dame Alan Stewart wishes to be beautiful and Grant Stott’s dastardly villain seems like just the man to make it happen.

Still drawing from conventional panto traditions, Stott, Stewart and Gray weave the new with the old as pantomime dame Mother Goose deals with the Edinburgh Tram system, ‘Gangnam Style’ dancing and the artificial beauty treatments of our favourite bad guy. As always, things don’t run according to plan but it’s the brisk ad-libbing and enthusiasm of the cast which draws everyone into their magical journey (perhaps a step or two behind last year’s). It’s guaranteed to have the young and the old enthralled as Stewart transforms from dowdy hag to beauty queen. With a pantomime that never fails to let you down, props go to writers Paul Elliot and Stewart as they prove themselves a dab hand at not only contemporary pantomime writing but in capturing the true magic of Christmas.

These TV outtakes are bound to give you goose-bumps!