I was astounded last Saturday afternoon as the Ovingham Reading Room rang once more to the peels of merry laughter as Ovingham Drama Group performed Alan Frayn’s panto version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island.

The Saturday matinee is not an easy audience to perform to, but the packed house of mostly children was excellent, joining in with the booing and “he’s behind you” as well as singing the song When I was young I had some fun.

The entire ensemble deserve plaudits for the verve and passion of their efforts.

One or two individuals, however stood out, – not surprisingly, Peter Pescod as Long John Silver pegging about the stage skilfully, grimaces and leers aplenty.

More surprising perhaps was Richard Heslop playing the dame (Rosie Bloom) for the first time ever, handling the whole thing with great confidence and getting the appropriate laughs at the right moments (a vast behind).

Francis Jones as a hilariously mad parrot and, at the end, as Barmy Ben is worth a mention.

All performances though were notable and I’m sure the cast won’t mind if I don’t mention them all individually.

The main praise should, of course, go to Jim Wardle, director, producer and choreographer for beautifully blending a mixture of songs of varying standard into the action to create a splendid visual display, while making sure the story drove on to its well-known end.

If you saw the bare bones of the starting script and compared it with the end result, you would see what I mean. Well done Jim and the group!

Sylvia Heslop