Attending the annual pantomime at the London Palladium has been a highlight of my year since childhood, and as the years go by that excitement has let up not one jot. For Christmas 2024, Crossroads Pantomimes have given us Robin Hood, and of course no expense has been spared to make this even more lavish, spectacular, colourful and, let’s face it, excessive than previous years.

This is the first time that perennial pleasure Julian Clary has ever embodied the eponymous character role at the Palladium panto. He’s still as delighted as ever to receive a warm hand upon his entrance, but he yields top billing to Channel 5 Cruising Superstar (I think that’s how he announces her) Jane McDonald, who, as Maid Marion, brings her own special musical magic to the show.

Most of the other usual suspects are there – Nigel Havers, getting progressively more teased every year about appearing yet again (at his age, I ask you), Paul Zerdin (plus Sam) getting the kids on his side (we’re all kids at the Palladium panto), as well as more recent treasures Charlie Stemp and Rob Madge.Missing in action this year is Gary Wilmot (currently to be found in the company of Robert Bolt’s Man for all Seasons as the Common Man touring to a theatre near you shortly) but instead we are blessed with the vivacious and officially fabulous Marisha Wallace as the Sheriff of Nottingham and the whopping great presence of Tosh Wanogho-Maud as the mischievously cast Little John.

Sometimes the Palladium pantos make some kind of narrative sense; sometimes they’re just a serving suggestion of a story. This year most of the plot makes hardly any sense at all, but nobody minds. I can’t remember what the excuse for the 3D sequence is, but it is very exciting – Straight Outta Disneyland, in fact. And there is a ten-part If I were not upon the stage something else I’d rather be fugue sequence performed as exquisitely as ever by Messrs Clary, Stemp, Havers, Zerdin andWanogho-Maud, and is the true highlight of the show; what Little John does with his truncheon is, frankly, obscene, but hilarious. The other standout moments for me are Jane McDonald singing You’re My World from her castle dungeon – an immaculate song sung immaculately – and Charlie Stemp leading the villagers with a rousing Sherwood Forest version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Me Old Bamboo.

But I must be honest, gentle reader; something about this panto doesn’t quite gel, and, amazing to relate, this was the only one of the four shows I saw over the Christmas period that didn’t get a standing ovation – something you would normally expect as automatic for the Palladium panto. Because Robin Hood doesn’t end with a Royal Wedding (unusual for a Panto), the curtain call comes along as something of a surprise, and I don’t think theaudience is ready for it; you feel like there should be just one more scene somehow. And certain aspects of the show don’t quite land as well as they normally do. For me there is a certain degree of miscasting this year and a couple of performers who are at the top of their careers just didn’t feel comfortable in some of their scenes. And there isn’t enough Sam! We welcome Mr Z  (as Will Scarlet) on stage many times but rarely in the company of his other half.

Don’t get me wrong, this is still a hugely enjoyable and all-round gigantic production, full of music and laughter; but for me it wasn’t quite up to the same high standard as previous years. You won’t keep me away from next year’s production though!

Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!