This is the first time that Hackney’s long-established pantomime supremo Susie McKenna has tackled Sleeping Beauty. To say “It shows” would be radically misinterpreted: even without the force of nature in ridiculous frocks that is Clive Rowe in the dame’s role, Hackney remains the liveliest and loudest panto in London. However, this year feels a little more deliberate than usual.

Sharon D. Clarke is unchallenged in lung-power as dark fairy Carabosse, who curses Princess Tahlia by means of a selection of belted-out soul and R&B numbers. Gavin Spokes fills the dame’s dresses energetically as Nanny Nora, but connects more instinctively with the grown-ups than the little ’uns, and Kat B in his usual kids’-best-friend role as Denzil the Dragon is constrained by both a bulky costume and a character simply bolted on to the traditional story. Conversely, Alexia Khadime shines as Tahlia, who – in what is becoming a new tradition for panto princesses – determines to have adventures of her own, and after being woken rather perfunctorily from her long sleep sets out to rescue her prince. Tony Whittle has more engaging ammo than the overdone speech impediment he deploys as King Eric, and the trio of good fairies are led by a fairy of restricted growth in the form of Kiruna Stamell, with no gags intruding from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs territory.

The second half flies by, with barely half an hour from curtain-up until the traditional front-curtain singalong before the opulent finale. Despite this, the show feels less than nimble – the first act could shed a couple of musical numbers – and, strangely for panto, heavier on actual narrative than on the conventional set-piece routines (notwithstanding a “slosh” scene that incorporates every conceivable kind of kitchen mess within a couple of minutes). The political edge one expects at Hackney is fully present, including an anti-referendum number entitled “Never Ask The People What They Think”. However, the family balance is not quite perfect this time: during the interval, I overheard the mum behind me reckoning that it was probably too much for children below six or seven years old. Still, a faltering Hackney panto is the equal of a Tigger-bouncing one elsewhere.

Written for the Financial Times.