Dandini, Buttons, Widow Twankey, King Rat, Abanazar, Carabosse. Every panto has names nobody can quite explain. I looked into it and here’s what I found out.

Richard Whittington was Lord Mayor of London, married well, and left a fortune to charity. He never owned a cat. Here's how the legend, and then the pantomime, got built on top of him.

From a Dame who used to be an old woodcarver to the fairy siblings whose feud drives the whole plot, here's every Pinocchio character in our script.

Who's who in our Aladdin? From Widow Twankey's laundrette to Abanazar's lair, we introduce every principal character so you know exactly who you're casting.

She wears a frock the size of a small marquee and steals every scene she is in. Here are my tips on how to get your Dame right.

A salon, a tower, a witch with a potion habit, and a pet rabbit who grows to human size in Act One and never stops talking afterwards.

Every pantomime uses the same handful of character types, and each one has a specific job to do in the story and in the room. Here is a proper look at all of them.

From ancient Greece to the London Palladium Theatre, the history of panto is a gloriously improbable tale. Oh yes it is!