IF pantomime is all about larger than life traditional characters, audience participation, local references, current memes (of course 6-7 is everywhere this year), love, goodies, baddies, singing and dancing, lots of great songs and a happy ending, then Poole Lighthouse is the place to go this Christmas.

Chris Jarvis, the man behind the Poole panto and a veteran of the art, has finally grown into his petticoats in Dick Whittington, as Dame Dolly Doughnuts, the marvellously funny, skippingly agile and naughtily loveable fulcrum of the show. This year he is again joined by the stupendous Sarah-Louise Young as King Rat, belting out the rodentine promise of Entertainment surrounded by snarling ratlings, loo brushes and a yukky menu of deliciously sewery delicacies.

They are BIG personalities to match, but with Corben Heward-Mills as the world’s most acrobatic Tommy the Cat, Bernadette Bangura’s magical fairy Bowbelles, Isabella Kibble’s powerful Alice and Robert Rees as her father Alderman Fitzwarren, and a convincing and delightful principal boy from Kieran Morris, there are no make-weights in this terrific show.

The packed audience was responsive from the moment the curtain rose – no encouragement needed here to get them joining in with the shouting, booing, hissing, cheering, clapping and whooping. The atmosphere, even at this 11am Sunday show, was electric from the off.

The essential but well-worn routines all had a fresh element, all written in by Chris Jarvis in the months he was not giving his Dame Dolly. The sweet trolley routine was fast and furious, the run round Dorset towns and villages clever and brief enough to keep the audience interested and the 12 days of Christmas had the cast and the audience in gales of laughter.

This really is a pantomime for all ages and you can see it at various times on  various dates until 4th January.

GP-W