They’ve given us ‘Potted Potter’ and ‘Potted Pirates’; now Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner and their director and co-writer Richard Hurst are back, with a madcap dash through all the big panto favourites. Role-swapping, silly costumes and cut-price props underpin their knockabout two-man storytelling, and they have the direct appeal of a couple of overgrown kids engaged in a game whose rules they make up as they go along.
Jeff, shorter, more serious, is the theatrical glue; lanky Dan is the prankster, ever ready with a daft quip, a slapstick stunt and occasionally a naughty innuendo. The cleverly judged balance of childish simplicity and adult sauce means the show engages parents as well as their offspring. There’s even a dash of satire: in ‘Dick Whittington’ a Boris Johnson wig turns the hero into a modern-day Lord Mayor of London.
Occasionally you suspect that they might be having more fun up on stage than we are watching them. But it’s jovially done; and if it’s a simple offering, there’s a lot to like about a Christmas show that relies on wit rather than glitz.