MOST pantomime stars appear for one brief season and then they're gone, whisked back to celebrity-land. At The Radlett Centre, however, they tend to do things a little differently and bring in regulars who just can't keep away from the panto limelight. The theatre's appeal is obvious when I sit in on rehearsals for this year's panto production - Beauty and the Beast. It's a cosy venue run by a dedicated team and draws in actors who, understandably, want to put down roots.

For Victoria Ward, this will be her fourth production as an actress and fifth as choreographer for the Radlett Centre.

Victoria, who stars as Beauty's bossy sister Milly, has been working on the routines with young dancers from Radlett.

"We've been rehearsing every Sunday since November," Victoria tells me. "They're very confident on stage and have a great time but there are always lots of tears when they have to say goodbye to their panto friends."

Comedy duo Stuart Nurse from St Albans and Robbie Bonar from Hitchin are reunited as the mother and son double-act that worked so successfully last year. Robbie, who runs a youth theatre group in Bishop's Stortford says: "I was Lester the Jester last year and now I'm the layabout son of Dame Dotty. I generally play the funnyman who's a friend of the kids. My catchphrase is "Hiya gang"."

I notice Robbie is wearing green Converse trainers and tell him they're the same shoes Aladdin was wearing at the pantomime rehearsal at Watford Palace.

"Us actors have a shoe share scheme," Robbie explains. "I had a pair of comfortable red ones last year but he (Aladdin) wore them out."

Dame Dotty is played by Stuart Nurse, who was Nanny Annie in last year's pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. Prior to that, Nurse starred as Jack Straw in the BAFTA award-winning TV series The Government Inspector, as well as working in the West End and with the New Shakespeare Company at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park.

I ask him what it was like to be reunited with his on-stage offspring.

He says: "Well, he never rang, he didn't send any cards. It's been a bit of a rebirthing experience, there'll be lots of boiling water involved and hot towels."

Ever the performer, Nurse, a father of two, went to his eldest son's school last year dressed as the pantomime dame because their Santa failed to turn up.

"It was a favour for the class and Santa had deputised me to give out the presents," says Nurse. "My son's whole class came to see the show, which was one of the factors for me donning the panto dress again. My wife is an actress and so the children are used to seeing us both on the stage, but some of the other mothers viewed me with deep suspicion."

Also starring in the show is Cliff Brayshaw, who performed in pantomimes at Watford Palace Theatre during the 1990s and returns to the scene after five years on tour with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The romantic leads are both new to the Radlett Centre. Rhiannon Henley as Beauty confesses to being a bit of a tomboy and most recently divided her time between theatre-in-education projects and touring Holland and Belgium in a 70s disco show. Her prince, is Australian-born Lincoln Stone who is playing the beast in his first ever panto, having spent a year and a half at sea as principal soloist on the QE2.

Beauty and the Beast runs from Saturday, December 9 to Saturday, December 30. Tickets: 01923 859291, or www.radlettcentre.co.uk (£10.50-£14.50.