Pantomime season is with us again in Oakworth, with all seven shows completely sold out.

This year’s show, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves has all you could wish for: a hero, his fair maiden, a dame, a village idiot and, of course, the evil Al Raschid, leader of the forty thieves.

We sighed with the lovesick son of Ali Baba, booed the evil Al Rashid, laughed and sang along with the dame and the village idiot, and, of course, were impressed with the many singers and dancers - all children from the village with no previous acting experience.

The art work, the costumes and the lighting and make-up were all excellent.

Ask me who was the star of the show and I really could not choose one - they were all brilliant.

Ask me whether I will go again next year - without a doubt, I wouldn’t miss it for anything.

Jackie McGinnis Jackie adds:

Well, as I told you last week I had my ticket for the pantomime and I must say it was worth every penny.

The children all did a sterling job, from the evil Al Raschid, leader of the forty thieves played by Rob Green, Ali Baba himself (Josh Foy), his son (Beth Olsson) - madly in love with slave girl, Marsaina (Sarah Chapman), the new ‘dame’, Cascara, housekeeper to Ali Baba (Frances Wrathall), madly in love with any available man and the village ‘idiot’, Tinbad (Harriet Shires), through the various thieves, servants, dancers, slave girls, etc, to the very tiny little angels accompanied by the guardian angel (Fiona Taylor).

Unfortunately it would be impossible to name the entire cast although I would love to, but it grows bigger every year.

The audience laughed and sang, they cheered and booed and generally joined in with anything and everything.

I know that there have been many groups of guides, brownies, rainbows, scouts, cubs and beavers at each performance as well as local people and visitors from far and wide.

I would like to thank the production team for the brilliant scenery and lighting effects, the backroom staff who look after the costumes, make up etc, the pianist without who there would be a certain something missing and the catering staff who manage to serve drinks to a lot of people in a very short time, and, of course the people without none of this could happen the publicity staff, namely David Howarth and Janet Armstrong.

If I have missed anyone from this long list of thanks, please accept my apologies – again there just would not be room in the newspaper to name them all individually – but my thanks to one and all. Finally, I would like to thank the people without whom none of this could even get off the ground - the parents, who help with costumes, make up and getting the children to rehearsals on time and the children themselves who have worked hard for weeks and weeks, often turning up for rehearsals when they would rather have been at home in bed with the many viruses that have been running rife in the village. THANK YOU everyone – I think you are all absolutely brilliant.