Stockport Plaza’s annual festival of fun, the Christmas panto, got off to a raucous start over the weekend.

Plaza regular Ted Robbins is back as Dame Trott and stars alongside EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison as Fairy Cauliflower with the show due to run for well over a month.

Robbins plays every scene for laughs – making light of his own brush with a death a few years ago – and sometimes even sticks to the script.

Jack and the Beanstalk also stars another panto regular, the ever-popular Bradley Thompson as Simple Simon – brother of our hero Jack (Tyler Sargent), who must slay the giant and win the hand of Princess Rosalinde (Lisa Jane Kelsey).

Expect energetic dance sequences, troublesome trolls, corny Christmas cracker jokes and a disobedient cow. Panto at its best.

A fixture on the north-west Christmas calendar, Jack and the Beanstalk is at Stockport Plaza until January 5, 2020 – see the Plaza for ticket details.