Ah pantomime. One of those weird British traditions that are almost impossible to explain to anyone else who has never grown up with them. How do you rationally say why you spent ages 4-10 shouting “he’s behind youu!!!” to a man dressed up in women’s clothes?
There are no two ways around it: pantomime is very strange. But it’s what we have as a tradition, and God damn it, we need to celebrate it. Like Churchill, world wars and the empire, it’s something that might not necessarily be our best face, but it’s quintessentially British. In recent years, though, something has changed.