From Goldilocks and the Three Bears, to witches, queens, fairies and a pair of big, but not-so-bad-wolves, you couldn’t move for bumping into a fairytale character.

The Cloideryn theatre group put on their winter pantomime ’Little Red Riding Hood’ at St Paul’s Hall, Ramsey, over the last two weekends, which featured a large cast of local actors, ranging from the very young to the young-at-heart, playing a veritable who’s who of storybook characters.

The result was an enjoyably chaotic romp through many set pieces and song-and-dance numbers which was equally enjoyed by the large audiences and the cast themselves.

Fourteen-year-old Lexi Forbes led the cast as the eponymous heroine, and did a great job of bringing together a long list of storylines, and even had the crowd singing and clapping along with her ukelele version of ’Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

The play centred around the struggles of the inhabitants of a magical woodland who faced the twin threat of an evil witch, played by Viv Hare, and from Dan Dera, played by Andy Done, who gleefully attracting the boos and jeers as the corrupt and evil landlord who wanted to evict the magical folk from their homes.

With such a large cast, according to producer Heather Ruffino, it is hard to give every one of the cast a mention, but it was a delight to see the younger cast members confidently acting and singing alongside the older members.

These included five-year-old Daniel Singleton, who made his stage debut and charmed all with his cheeky grin as ’Smokey’, one of the three little pigs, and the young pair of lost children, Hansel and Gretal, played by Noah Yardley, 11, and Olivia Johnson, seven, who alternated in the role with Maisie Carroll.

Rosie Corona gave a terrifically funny performance as the temperamental Queen of Hearts.

This was also the final time the group would be seeing Chris Lowdon dressed as a panto dame.

The vicar of St Paul’s, who is a staunch member of Cloideryn, and who has made the lipstick and over-sized corsets of the dame his own over the previous few years, is off to pastures new, and he made his farewell with a typically over-the-top performance as ’Scruly Trumptious’.