all the brainchild of former blue peter presenter and dame, peter duncan.inally, he had the idea back in the summer when theatres were forced to close. come the first lockdown, i thought to myself, "oh, there's not going to be any pantos this year." and, obviously, i produce pantos, so what am i going to do instead? itjust tumbled into happening. to be honest, i was going to kind of shoot it on an iphone to begin with. then, just like a fairy tale, cinema bosses heard about the project and they decided to release the film nationwide into 55 cinemas. i never expected in my wildest dreams. because, you know, pantomime is always regarded by a lot of people as quite lowbrow. and, actually, i've often thought the opposite. i think it's quite... i think it's bordering on high art. it's been a tough year for the arts, with many productions, including pa ntos, becoming financially unviable due to social distancing. and that's meant thousands within the sector out of work. so, small one—off productions like this, which employed 35 out of work freelancers, has proven

all the brainchild of former blue peter presenter and dame, peter duncan.t be if i made a pantomime in my back garden, would it work? they all said yes and i got these people around me and sam who plays jack, why don't you ask the cat! everyday cinemas where i used to be an usher. —— ask the everyday. i thought it wouldn't happen. some asked them and he is a star in the movie. it is exciting. it is all kind of serendipity, really. you start very small, i was going to film it on a smartphone and thenit going to film it on a smartphone and then it grew into this big production. you make it sound simple and it is serendipity but a lot of work went into this. first of all, how many people were involved, how did you get to film it and how long did you get to film it and how long did it take? we filmed summer the between the two waves. a5 people involved roughly. —— we filmed in summer. involved roughly. —— we filmed in summer. we are showcasing on the ath of december, we are still doing postproduction. you are right, it is big and the more it grew, the more it g