In the Independent a couple of weeks ago, Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, regaled us with a tale of being a pantomime dame in the Scottish Highlands town of Tain. This appears to be something on a habit. He played Dame Tilly Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk just before an election in 2017. He was elected regardless, despite the wardrobe difficulties: “I had to haul myself into a massive bra and fake boobs, the wig, the tights, the boots.”

He suffered the age-old struggle to learn lines:

“But you speak every week in the House of Commons!” said my better half, as we stumbled through rehearsals in the kitchen. I got there in the end. I didn’t fluff my lines, I didn’t fall off the stage, and I was allowed to take a bow at the end!

You wonder how he was greeted canvassing in Tain, though it is unlikely he went in full pantomime dress door to door. Yet, when he got back to the Commons, Jamie had trouble dropping his pantomime persona:

Returning to the Commons this week, Tain’s “Humpty Dumpty” still rang in my ears as I gazed at the government benches opposite. Indeed, when the former prime minister Boris Johnson stood up to ask a health question, I was tempted to shout, “look behind you!”

There is a serious side to Jamie’s role playing. This time last year, he tabled a parliamentary motion celebrating pantomime and calling on the UK government to support theatres and entertainers. Pantomime, he says, brings people together from across society:

You’ll have a local solicitor playing the back half of a cow, and some of the children in the chorus come from the toughest backgrounds, while others come from posh private estates. Being in the chorus gives them confidence, and a couple have gone on to think seriously about [a career in] music.

Let us celebrate the pantomime but also not forget some of the difficulties that our faux dames face. Over to Jamie for the closing lines:

The other problem is going to the loo. You walk into the gents, pull up your skirt and get some funny looks!

Enough said!

* Andy Boddington is a Lib Dem councillor in Shropshire. He blogs at andybodders.co.uk.