I went with my companion to the 2026 Churt Amateur Dramatic Society panto - always a good night out.

This year it was Cinderella, a perennial favourite, written by Ben Crocker who always delivers a sparkling script. After weeks of gloomy, wet darkness it was a welcome feast of light, colour, laughter and music.

It opened with two delightful fairy godmothers - well, a radiant fairy godmother and her enchanting apprentice (Beth and Bella Amero). I’m beginning to think the Amero family actually do possess magical powers.

From there we were introduced to a cast of wonderful characters - everyone you would expect, but not always as you would expect them.

There were strong, accomplished and memorable comic performances from Dandini (Alex Munos) and Buttons (Annie Manning). We knew we were in good hands whenever they appeared.

Prince Charming was truly - charming. Marianne Neilan brought an emotional sensitivity to the role that you don’t often see in pantomime.

His beloved, Cinderella (Lexie Ewart), looked every inch the beautiful, delicate and kind-hearted heroine we could hope for.

Her family, on the other hand, provided exactly the level of ghastliness needed to give us something to boo and hiss at.

Where to start? Perhaps with her hapless father, Baron Hardup (Ellis Nicholls), in comic thrall to his terrifying wife, Lady Devilia (Dawn Barrow), who gave us the best possible booing and hissing opportunities with her evil ways.

As for Cinders’ sisters, well Ugly doesn’t begin to describe them. Beryl (Paul Allum) and Cheryl (Greg Ewart) were the Totally Hideous Beyond Belief Sisters - huge hulking pantomime dames who were clearly having a fantastic time tormenting poor Cinders.

I thought one of the comic highlights of this panto was the scene where Dandini was trapped between them, like a very small referee between two Sumo wrestlers in drag. Very funny.

If that wasn’t enough, we had more to enjoy in further extremely funny characters. Dumpling the pantomime horse (April Showers and Bonnie Holloway) had me in fits. In an inspired bit of casting, they made a perfect pantomime horse - if I had a hat I’d take it off to them both.

Then, drum roll please, there were Snitch and Snatch (Nigel Dams and Chris Deacon). Of course, in pantoland, anything goes, so why not have two likely lads in Blues Brothers suits, hats and sunglasses rocking the place with their terrific song and dance acts and their comic turns as brokers’ men and security guards. We all loved them.

Supporting this merry, mad and wicked lot with their acting, singing and dancing were Sabrina Wong and Jack Irwin as many and various characters; courtly staff, spooky trees, mouse-turned-coachman - amazing pumpkin coach by the way.

The magic that events like this weave - the experience of having been welcomed warmly, and royally entertained, doesn’t happen by accident.

One glance at the programme and you could see that the production team outnumbered the cast by almost three to one.

The cast gets all the laughter and applause - pretty much - so the invisible wizards of Churt that made it all possible deserve praise too.

Well done to directors David Irwin and Anneliese Wadham for bringing it all together and creating so many memorable moments.

The sets were marvellous, vivid and cartoon-like, a perfect backdrop for the larger-than-life characters.

Hats off too to Jan Macavoy for the excellent costumes, Ellie Marsh for giving us such a varied musical soundtrack - something for everyone - and Francis Farrell and Maureen Hamilton for original choreography. And heartfelt thanks too to all those others not mentioned here - you know who you are.

Rena Bassar