Oh Yes We Did

We went to see the pantomime tonight. Just the two of us, which meant we felt a bit out of place amongst all the complete families that packed Hull New Theatre, but number one wife has always liked the Chuckle Brothers and I like watching professionals drive an audience so off we went.

One of the reasons we ventured out was that we heard this was a good one, and so it turned out. The Chuckle Brothers are the kind of comedy institution that it is popular to throw rocks at in this interactive, multi-channel, reality TV driven world. However, the simple fact is that you can put them in front of an audience and they will give darned good value for money. And so they did. Very funny.

I found it interesting to look across the theatre and see three generations of a family all laughing like drains at the antics on the stage. I enjoy a good pantomime. There aren't many traditions like it in the world and I love the idea that successive generations will turn up as grandkids, parents and grandparents and all enjoy something which, with a modicum of tweaking, has stayed fundamentally the same for many years.

The rest of the cast were well up to their roles. The story was Cinderella, and the ugly sisters were suitably nasty, the prince dashing and the fairy good mother flew about the stage with the right amount of bangs and puffs of smoke. They all had real barnstorming voices too, and belted out their versions of recent pop songs with great gusto. I'm very impressed that they managed to keep up the pace and the volume even after a month of solid performing. Good stuff.