IF you want to see Potterne’s new panto, your only hope is to wait for returns as the pantomime group reports the three-night run at the village hall this weekend is sold out.

The village writes its own panto each year and this year Once Upon a Time is based on a number of nursery rhymes, such as The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.

It has been written by Tony Bailey who has been involved as an actor since the panto group started up in 1985, and there are lots of opportunities for audience participation written into the show.

Group founder Jackie Sawyer said: “Last year we sold out two weeks before we opened and this year it was also sold out well before the run, so we must be doing something right. I think people get their money’s worth out of us.”

One actor who will not be appearing is Leslie Smith, who was preparing to play the father of the children who live in the shoe when he took the instruction to “break a leg” – theatrical parlance for “good luck” – too literally and fractured his limb a few weeks before the show.