In The Story of Panto (Sky), Gyles Brandreth (as he writes in his Oldie column) shares his love of the 300-year-old uniquely camp Christmas tradition.
As someone who finds pantomime numbingly dull, I watched this cheerful programme with anthropological interest. Would Gyles, with his infinite charm, manage to persuade me there is more to panto than smutty innuendo and audience participation?
Not really, because The Story of Panto is not an apologia but a celebration of those who have panto in their DNA. This, for the Brandreth family, is literally the case. It was in a student production of Cinderella that Gyles met his wife, Michèle, in 1968, and they have since been, as he puts it, ‘breeding' in their children and grandchildren ‘the future audience of panto'.
Together, Gyles…
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The Oldie (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2025