Aladdin, Aladdin and more Aladdin

With the excitement of Christmas over you may you may have thought that my week would have quietened down, but no dear reader. Monday was panto number two, this time ‘Aladdin’ at the Crewe Lyceum. With a house full of family we all went to another very good panto, featuring Canon and Ball as comedy double act PC Ping and PC Pong (yes I know there is no one called PC Ping in the story) in a slighting smaller space than Birmingham it was still packed full of panto fun.

This week's three Aladdins

Having seen ‘Aladdin’ twice now, I felt it was only naturally to go and see it again, but this time in Manchester. So, on Tuesday, Mum and I went to see it my third panto in a more familiar theatre space. Unlike Crewe, I’ll be honest and say my main motivation to see this one was to stage door one of the cast as an actor who appeared in Who, Eric Potts, played the dame, as well as writing and directing the show. Again this was another fantastic panto, with an awful lot of family fun and laughs. I was very impressed by Eric Potts’s talent as a director, writer and dame, as the script was very strong, it was well directed and he made a fantastic dame, with so many laughs. Afterwards I stage doored him (yep still a verb) and he was lovely, a very clever man. Whilst waiting outside I saw an old school friend who was the ASM on the show unbeknownst to me, so it was great to catch up with her.

Wednesday was spent watching festive TV and eating chocolates (both important jobs). Whilst Thursday wasn’t a panto, but Star Wars, as Dad and I wandered off to see ‘Rogue One’. I have to say I think it was better than ‘Force Awakens’ as it had all the icons of the original films and fitted in so perfectly with them. Whilst I may not be much of a Star Wars aficionado I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our visit to Blackpool

The rest of my week was spent watching even more festive viewing and eating more chocolate (see what I mean dear reader, important jobs), as well as catching up with a few friends from school. Whilst for once, I did something on a Sunday (my goodness!). We (Dad, Mum and I) wandered off to Blackpool, for, you guessed it dear reader, another panto! This was to be our fourth and final panto, making that three Aladdin’s and one Dick Whittington (not bad going is it really). Again I must admit that the desire to see this came more from the fact that the title role was played by none other than Barney Harwood, a childhood hero of mine, having watched him pretty much constantly growing up (and he has been in Who).The show itself was brilliant, it had far more of a local, community feel to it and a real warmth which was nice. Afterwards I stage-doored Barney (yep, still a verb) who was lovely, a delight to meet. Before heading back, we wandered down to the front (it was pretty dark by this point) to look at the tower.

Happy New Year readers!