Dick Whittington opens this week at Lighthouse Poole, but having enjoyed so much success with Poole pantomimes in recent years, among them last year’s box office smash Sleeping Beauty and national Panto Award-winning productions of Aladdin and Cinderella, writer-director Chris Jarvis remains characteristically reluctant to accept too much of the credit. 

“We are incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful team right across the board,” he says.  

“Once again, we have a lovely cast – every one of them is a team player who just wants to do a great job – and we are singularly fortunate to have our production designer James Smith. Every year his role and his talent become increasingly more important. It’s thanks to him we’re now putting on the sort of spectacle which you could only really have dreamed of seeing in the Palladium, or with a much bigger budget.  

“But the same goes for the whole team at Lighthouse. Everybody is involved so that the moment you step through the door, you feel like you are entering a panto – from the welcome you get in the foyer, to the decoration of the bars, all the front of house and back stage staff. It’s quite rare.” 

This marks the 30th consecutive year that Chris Jarvis has appeared in professional pantomime. He won a national Panto Award for Best Principal Boy the last time Dick Whittington played Lighthouse, in 2018, but since then he has fully embraced the glitz and glamour of playing the Dame, and can’t wait to rock the frock again this year. 

“Oh, I love it. I thought I might struggle with all the changes, but I’ve been fine. All those years in panto hearing the Dames moan about the quick changes, I don’t know what they were on about!” 

Poole-born West End star Bernadette Bangura, who was in Moulin Rouge and was last at Lighthouse as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray in 2022, stars as Fairy Bowbelles with returning Sleeping Beauty cast members Sarah-Louise Young, whose bad fairy Carabosse was such a hit last year, as the villainous King Rat, and Bournemouth-based student Corben Heward-Mills, who was in the ensemble cast of Sleeping Beauty, playing Tommy the Cat. 

Also back is Isabella Kibble, who played Rose in Sleeping Beauty, as the object of Dick’s affections, Alice Fitzwarren; with award-winning actor Robert Rees as her father the Alderman, and experienced young actor Keiran Morris as Dick Whittington. 

In the panto, Dame Dolly Doughnuts works with Bowbelles – and Tommy – to make sure the path of true love runs as smoothly as possible for Dick and Alice. 

“Dick Whittington is such a gift,” says Chris. “It’s one of the best panto stories, because it actually makes sense. There’s a genuine quest; it’s a rags to riches story, but in a way that is properly realised and earned, rather than made up or stolen.” 

With lavish costumes and sets, magical special effects, spectacular musical numbers and loads of family comedy, Dick Whittington follows the traditional story of the poor young man who travels to London to make his fortune having been told its streets are paved with gold. With the help of Tommy the Cat he gets a job with Alderman Fitzwarren, a wealthy merchant, and falls in love with Alice, his boss’ daughter. After falling foul of the wicked King Rat he is forced to leave town, but turns back when Fairy Bowbelles shows him a dream in which he achieves true greatness. What follows is a great adventure across the seas as Tommy helps Dick clear his name, defeat King Rat, and win the hand of the fair Alice, thereby securing his fortune. 

“Obviously, it’s based in London, but we spend as much time in Poole as we do in London, which adds a bit of texture to the story. For me though, it all comes back the cast – Bernadette is going to be dynamite and her playing opposite Sarah-Louise will be spectacular. Like she did last year in Sleeping Beauty, she is playing the villain again but she does it with such warmth that people pick up on, which makes them want to see her again.  

“It will be amazing to see those two playing opposite each other. 

“Keiran is going to be brilliant as Dick, he’s young but very experienced, and it’s lovely to see Isabella coming back – she’s just so good, looks wonderful and can deliver comedy really well. Robert is phenomenally talented, which means we’re able to make more of the Alderman role, and I can’t wait to see Corben as Tommy the Cat. He communicates in movement and music with precision lip syncing to songs – he’ll be incredible.” 

Dick Whittington is sponsored by National Express and Raymond James Poole and can be seen at Lighthouse Poole from Thursday until Sunday 4 January.

Tickets available at 

https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/

https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/dick-whittington/

Phone number 01202 280000