The cast of this Christmas' pantomime production Beauty and the Beast outside the Atkinson, Southport.

“Off to the cupboard now, Chip. It’s past your bedtime.”

It’s a line my little girl regularly delivers at home, sometimes with withering disdain during a moment of parental hopelessness, sometimes with a charming smile to bring out a laugh. It made its way into our lives through Angela Lansbury’s classic theme song to Beauty and the Beast - an early feature of the Disney classics album that has been the soundtrack to almost every journey we have made for the past six months.

The battle of the princesses ebbs and flows but among the favourites is Belle, so the opportunity to travel up to Southport and see her in action at the Atkinson this Christmas was one we could not miss.

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