Grant and co will Hook you in to this year’s panto - Karen Koren

​It’s panto season again and Edinburgh’s traditional pantomime launched last week at the Festival Theatre for the second year, while the renovation work is ongoing at the King’s Theatre.

Allan Stewart, Grant Stott and Jordan Young star in this year's big Edinburgh panto at the Festival Theatre.

​The year it’s the Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan and it’s a must see in every family’s Christmas calendar.

I was very lucky to be at the launch last week and it’s a spectacular show as always with our favourite stars, Grant Stott as always the villain Captain Hook, Allan Stewart as Aunty May McSmee and Jordan Young as Smee.

I will always miss Andy Gray from Edinburgh’s panto line-up, though we have his daughter Clare, who has been a regular every year since before Andy died.

Clare Gray plays Starkey one of Captain Hook’s crewmates and continues to shine in the line-up.

Though there are great dance numbers and some impressive sword fighting – it’s the comedic skits by Grant, Allan, Jordan and Clare that steal the show and give us a right good laugh.

The storyline is hard to follow as Captain Hook was eaten by a crocodile at the beginning, but strangely he survived and before the interval a huge crocodile appears and Hook is eaten again – or so we are led to believe – but there he is miraculously in the second half.

But let’s face it, the show wouldn’t be the same if Grant wasn’t in the second half.

We just have to use our imagination and go with the flow – the story isn’t that important and with high-flying Tinkerbell played by Rebecca Stenhouse, Wendy played by Robyn Whyte, Peter Pan played by Kieran Lynch and Hook’s crew, the dance sensation Flawless – the show has great energy and good fun for all the family to enjoy.

It’s on until 31 December.

Panto is not always to everyone’s taste so there’s a welcome return to The Playhouse Theatre of the smash hit West End musical Wicked

It starts tonight and is guaranteed to satisfy all the musical theatre addicts. With amazing musicals numbers such as Defying Gravity, No One Mourns the Wicked and I’m Not That Girl.

Definitely a musical not to be missed.