Behind me, a very small pantogoer was being instructed by his father: “What do you do when the baddie appears? You shout BOOO.”

The lesson was timely, for in Swindon the baddie is Paul Nicholas, playing Captain Hook. Nicholas has many years’ pirate experience owing to his long association with Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, but here he looks so disarmingly friendly that he takes a little while to get the boos going.

He succeeds with a vengeance, however, in a fast-paced show that is extra strong on audience participation – a routine involving the entire audience hurling soft, spongy rocks on to the stage to bring about Hook’s demise is enormous fun, as is the appearance of no less than four ghosts racing round the auditorium.

This panto-ized version of Peter Pan turns Tinkerbell into a tutu-wearing dame (Andy Cryer), who does the adult jokes: “Don’t look at my new American bra, one yank and it’s off” was new to me. Stephen Carlile gives Smee a nice twist as a nerdy-looking type who rapidly wises up, and there’s uniformly lively support from Richard Vincent (pictured) as the flying Peter Pan, and the rest of the ensemble cast.

Until January 9. Tickets: 01793 524481 (www.wyverntheatre.org.uk).