Review - Aladdin at The Hippodrome, Birmingham (until February 9).

ANYONE feeling down or woeful as we enter a new year should seek out the tonic that this wonderful panto will provide.

It will put a smile back on your face and some colour in your cheeks.

It's fairly traditional, with plenty of fun for all the family - keeping the younger element fully entranced and still having the highly amusing appeal for the mums and dads with lots of cheeky innuendo, particularly from Bobby Davro (Aladdin).

Mr Davro is a comic we haven't seen too much of on the small screen in recent times, which is a pity. Here he holds the show together with his sense of fun and great professionalism, and he never loses the opportunity to throw in an extra joke about anything that went wrong on stage.

Support comes in the form of Don Maclean, who plays Widow Twankey - the perfect panto dame, and I wouldn't have expected anything less after the years he has performed this role.

We also have John Challis, that's Boycie from tv's Only Fools and Horses, former model now tv show presenter Melinda Messenger, and Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie.

We do get a touch of Boycie on stage with Abanazar, but he is ideally villainous and scheming and gets a generous share of the traditional booing.

Melinda Messenger looks gorgeous as the Princess, but I think even she will admit her acting won't be getting any Oscar or Bafta nominations, while the experienced Amanda Barrie entered the comedy spirit. Here again though her singing won't be troubling any award judges.

But those are just minor criticisms of a show truly packed with action and fun.

We even have Spiderman making a spectacular appearance, a noisy over-the-top Chinese emperorn (Masashi Fujimoto), as well as Thunderbirds.

So pack up all your cares and woe and make sure you head for the Hippo in the next few weeks for a special pick-me-up.

AW