You can always rely on The Alban Arena to present a cracking pantomime and this year’s offering - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, starring Toyah Willcox and Phil 'Mister Maker’ Gallagher - is yet another excellent show to add to the list.

Written by Paul Hendy and directed by Pip Minnithorpe, it’s a noisy, rumbustious affair with plenty of all the elements that make panto unique – a top-notch baddie, beautiful princess, handsome prince and a couple of hapless sidekicks (not to mention seven dwarfs, one an adorably cute ten-year-old).

Toyah Willcox was suitably scary – possibly even a little too scary – as the wicked queen and clearly revelled in the role. Children’s favourite Phil Gallagher (better known to parents and toddlers as CBeebies favourite Mister Maker) had my six-year-old Elliott transfixed, especially during the ‘minute make’, which he couldn’t stop telling everyone about afterwards.

Me, I preferred Bob Golding’s Herman the Henchman. Bob’s one-act play about Eric Morecambe won heaps of awards and rave reviews a year or two ago and it’s no wonder that his performance here, in which Morecambe’s madcap antics and superb comic timing were clearly bursting to get out, was as hilarious as it was nostalgic. As a St Albans resident, he clearly enjoyed his role and, as far as I’m concerned, he can be in the town’s panto every year if he wants.

Completing the cast were Snow White (Jemma Carlisle) and Prince Charming (David McGranaghan) who kept everything grounded with suitably calming performances while all around them descended into organised chaos.

There’s no real need to go into the plot - we know all about wicked queens and poisoned apples - and some of the jokes may have gone over the youngsters’ heads, but no-one seemed to care and, from the volume of cheers and shouts as the curtain fell, a fantastic time was clearly had by all. Don’t miss it.

David Crozier