Advent Calendar 2021 Day 24: Cinderella: The Shoe Must Go On

To finish off for, christ, our seventh year of scouring the online world of Advent-ure, it's the traditional ITV pantomime! That is apart from the yawning gaps when they can't be arsed, as this from 1986 was the only one between 1969 (Aladdin with Mike and Bernie Winters and Jack Douglas) and 1998 (Jack And The Beanstalk with Neil Morrissey, Julie Walters and a cast of thousands) Penned by Barry Cryer and Dick Vosburgh with music by Keith Strachan (pre-Mistletoe And Wine, very pre-Who Wants To Be A Millionaire), the ever welcome visage of Willie Rushton narrates as the evil stepmother - Danny La Rue, of course, because we always had drag in our culture, it's just that everyone including the people doing it understands what it actually is now, and La Rue hated being called a drag act anyway - visits Hardup Hall, its propreitor Roy Kinnear ("I should have stayed in Peterborough") and his daughter Cinderella, Cheryl Baker having to confide in Buttons (Jimmy Cricket) Kicking off a range of songs, out in the forest Brian Conley is Dandini who swaps with Michael Howe, best known from Solo, who feels like a "someone was ill" choice for Prince Charming. Basil Brush is chased by huntmaster Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog. Brian Murphy and Roy Hudd, a man you'd want for broad music hall routines, are the comic relief ugly sisters. Someone finally thinks to put Steve Nallon and John Wells together, and they're apparently Prince Charming's parents. Throw in Faith Brown as the fairy godmother, Judith Chalmers, Shaw Taylor, a wilf of a town crier, Les Dennis and Roy Walker doing slapstick, and Jim Bowen as a slipper fit locating game show host with assistant Caroline Munro who was doing 3-2-1 duties at the time, and it's all great fun for old and young. Merry Christmas!