Today is #PantoDay! Oh yes it is!

The Streatham Hill Theatre had a long tradition of Christmas pantomimes, staging such well-known stories as Babes in the Wood, Dick Whittington and of course Sleeping Beauty. Going to a panto as a child with the family is often a first, formative experience of theatre. Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring pantos back to Streatham Hill?

Simon Callow saw his very first pantomime, Puss in Boots, starring Jimmy Edwards in 1958 – he recalls the episode in his recent interview for us.

And Gyles Brandreth saw Cinderella in 1960, with Frankie Howard as buttons as he describes in an article on his blog.

We have a number of pantomime programmes in our collection, and here are a few of the cover illustrations.