"Ah, yes," said Ofpants, the official panto watchdog, and I'd swear he was licking his lips.
"Red hot honey pears ..." The old dog wasn't referring to the Tron's seasonal menu. "They ca' me hunny frae the dunny ..." By now he was singing. The Govan Fairy's song, like a lot of this panto, had come flooding back to him during this bright new Tron production of a show he had adored as a young pup. He'd doodled smiley faces beside the names Bahookey and Bumble, and added "blissful, messy slapstick!!!". There wasn't a single cross on his checklist. Had fond recollections clouded the old dog's judgement? Not a jot. What's not to love, applaud and laugh at in a panto that's smart enough to act the innocent purveyor of old-fashioned fun while playing peek-a-boo mischief with naughty puns, wise-cracking rhymes and gallus Glesca' patter?
Unlike Tron pantos of recent years, Mr Merlin doesn't play the post-modern or panto-political card. But there's nothing cobwebby or tired about writer Alex Norton's affectionate evocations of the music-hall style that cradled our finest panto traditions.
Keith Fleming's Bahookey, a mustachio-ed swaggerer cruisin' for a (prat) fall and Robbie Jack's adroitly inept Bumble, his comically kow-towing servant, are an accident-prone double act made in vaudeville heaven. Jimmy Chisholm's affable Mr Merlin is pretty magic without the wand Bahookey stole. But Finn Den Hertog and Sally Reid, the utterly lovable living dolls who brave all manner of scary moments, save the day with the help of the Govan Fairy (Angela Darcy) and us, of course.
HHHH
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