Dick Whittington

Published Wednesday 9 January 2008 at 16:40 by Douglas McPherson

Of course, we get a snatch of the theme tune and a Tardis sound effect, but for a show that reunites Colin ‘sixth Doctor’ Baker with his old nemesis Terry ‘Davros, creator of the Daleks’ Molloy, any temptation to fill this Dick Whittington with Dr Who gags seems to have been exterminated.

It helps that Baker is largely unrecognisable as the magnificently mischievous baddie King Rat, while Molloy’s Alderman Fitzwarren naturally bears no resemblance to Davros. But there is, in any case, no need to shore up this typically slick and fast moving panto from the always reliable Norwich Theatre Royal with outside references.

Accomplished visual set pieces include a giant sea monster whose tentacles literally envelope the stage, large scale ultra-violet puppetry for an underwater scene, an excellent Stomp! style tap routine and a very effective tilting cabin interior that provides a slippery stage for a slapstick routine between Nick Staverson’s Idle Jack and dame Richard Gauntlett.

Gauntlett, who also wrote the script, deserves praise for giving some chippy, streetwise dialogue to Tommy the Cat (nicely brought to life by Georgina Todd) and for generally breathing fresh life into the old routines - a sparkling soap powder sketch, for instance.