IT hardly seems more than a month since the 2025-26 pantomime season ended, and already theatres around the country are looking forward to the 2026/2027 season. This early press release will be good news for fans of the festive show at England’s prettiest theatre, Bat Theatre Royal.

Nick Wilton will be back as the Dame for his eighth season. Nick has been enchanting the Bath audiences with his version of the panto staple character – he isn’t a glam drag dame or an “ugly sister”, rather he is funny, cuddly and charming. And Dame Polly La Plonk in Jon Monie’s Beauty and the Beast is perfect for his comedic skills. He missed last year, when Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook did not have a dame role. But there is plenty for the dame to do in this year’s show.

Nick says: “I am really looking forward to being back for my eighth season at the beautiful Theatre Royal Bath, this year playing Dame Polly La Plonk. Bath is a wonderful city, especially at Christmas, and the theatre is perfect for a magical, picture-book pantomime. I love working with Jon (my favourite pantomime ‘son’) and his version of Beauty and the Beast is my favourite pantomime too!”

Once again, the panto script has been written by the multi-talented actor-comedian Jon Monie, who first appeared in the Christmas show in Bath in 1996. He has been starring in the Theatre Royal pantomime for many years, first with the wonderful and still-missed Chris Harris, the West Country’s greatest dame, until Chris’s sad death in 2014, and subsequently on his own as the knock-about comedian and writer. Jon’s version of Beauty and The Beast won Best Script at The Great British Pantomime Awards in 2019.

Bath’s pantomime producer Martin Dodd, of UK Productions, says: “We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Nick Wilton back to Bath as the incomparable Polly La Plonk in Beauty and the Beast. Nick is a true panto master – razor-sharp, gloriously daft and utterly irresistible with an audience – and Bath simply adores him. The added magic this year is seeing him share the stage with Jon Monie as his on-stage son, Louis La Plonk, which promises double the mischief and double the laughs.”

Beauty and the Beast will run at Bath Theatre Royal from Thursday 10th December 2026 to Sunday 10th January 2027.