REVIEW: Peter Pan - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Thursday, December 10, 2015 to Sunday, January 3, 2016.

THE festive season really wouldn’t be complete without a visit, either before or after the big day, to see a good pantomime and this is without doubt a top quality production offering the very best of fun for all the family.

The whole show had a bounce and vibrancy which spread throughout the audience, affecting not just the younger ones but also the older members who proved they were young at heart and more than happy to let their hair down.

This Malvern panto is once again in the traditional vein, providing plenty of opportunity to hiss and boo at the villain or cheer your favourites, and there are plenty of other moments for audience participation such as water pistols - both little and large, a sing-along, four delightful children from the audience wonderfully and amusingly ‘interrogated’ by Andrew Agnew and more besides.

There are also some good special effects involving plenty of aerial activity, great acrobatics from The Nitwits (Andrew Rothwell, Jacob Theisinger and Chris Gage) and a sharp and stylish script with several clever word-play encounters usually involving Smee and Captain Hook.

There were one or two moments when not everything that had been rehearsed went according to plan - involving stage lighting, a spot of wobbliness with parts of the set and hopefully with each performance the stage hands will become a little quieter as they shift the scenery around. But this was opening night and to be fair they were only minor blemishes.

The night was all about having fun and it was dolloped out by the bucket-load!

Amusing Andrew Agnew led the way as Smee, Hook’s right-hand or maybe left-hand man thanks to that old croc! A regular face on television, he is possibly best known as PC Plum in the BAFTA award winning series of Balamory and he made it all look so easy. Great rapport with young and old with his infectious sense of humour and he garnered excellent support from the experienced Mark Moraghan who deliciously hammed it up as a menacing Captain Hook and made it quite plain he didn’t like children except as ‘a little snack’. He also played Mr Darling.

Excellent support all around too such as Jessica Punch (Peter Pan), who bounded around with great energy and agility both on foot or with the aid of wires, Rosie Needham (Tinker Bell), Laura Harrison (Tiger Lily) and Anna Lawrence (Wendy) - a female quartet who, along with Hannah-Jane Fox, who doubled up as Mrs Darling and a mischievous and merry-making mermaid, showed they had decent voices.

Plenty to admire and appreciate elsewhere from the Darling family, the dancing townsfolk and indians, and the Lost Boys and children from the Cecilia Hall Dance Centre.

The three-man orchestra of Dean McDermott (keyboards), Mark Cooper (bass) and Nicholas Atkins (drums) was on top form, however, the sets left a little to be desired in act one but what a considerable and impressive improvement after the interval.

Put the whole lot together, give it all a quick spin and from the resultant mix is a night of excellent entertainment to provide that feel-good factor for all the family as the count-down to the big day continues.