I LOVE a good pantomime to put me in the Christmas mood and Salisbury Playhouse always puts on a great show.

This year, we are transported back to Peking for the ancient and magical tale of Aladdin.

Poor Aladdin works in the laundry for his mum Widow Twanky but has dreams of becoming a rockstar and, on his quest to find riches, he falls in love with beautiful Princess Jasmine along the way.

I didn't think last year's Cinderella could be beaten, but this year's offering is chock-full of even more songs and dancing while maintaining quite a contemporary feel.

No panto is complete without some slapstick humour and double entendre. Scriptwriter Andrew Pollard has packed it all in to this one, with a smidgen of localism and some topical gags; which always get the biggest laugh - needless to say Donald Trump and the EU referendum get a mention.

The funniest scene has got to be the duet between Widow Twanky (Richard Ede) and Emperor Fu (Fred Broom) to Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'.

While the loveliest harmony is between Aladdin (Tyler Fayose) and princess Jasmine (Rebecca Hazel) in their powerful rendition of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', across the theatre.

The Playhouse may be a relatively small theatre, but director Ryan McBryde uses it to its full potential, with the actors popping up all over the place.

There are two genies – the Genie of the Ring (Nerine Skinner), who is a boffin with a lot of useful facts to share with us (and a lot of lines to learn), while Genie of the Lamp (Melissa Brown-Taylor) knows how to shake her booty.

Lynden Edwards is well cast as the villain Abanazar, who hates children and pensioners, and wound the crowd up into a booing and hissing frenzy.

There are some marvellous special effects, particularly the magic carpet – you could hear gasps of awe from the audience as Aladdin rose up across the stage and over the front row, with great use of stage lighting to conceal the magical methods.

The whole cast were polished and funny. The young performers were adorable and a special mention should go to the costumes department, particularly for Widow Twanky's amazingly outrageous outfits.

The only negative I could mention is that there was a little bit of microphone interference during some of the more physical scenes, but it is only the opening week so I'm sure this will be ironed out.

So get on your magic carpets and fly down to Salisbury Playhouse, it's a spectacular show to rub you up the right way this Christmas!

– Aladdin runs in the Main House until Saturday, January 7. For tickets call 01722 320333 or visit salisburyplayhouse.com