Every year Bristol Hippodrome plays host to a fantastic pantomime, the production of Cinderella starring Brian Conley and Gok Wan might just be one of the best yet.

It may not be something that everyone enjoys but a panto can be great fun if embraced for the comedy piece it is meant to be.

There is a checklist in to making a good production of this kind, you need: costumes, set, effects, humour, a good story, dancing and singing and some terrific performers.

Cinderella at the Hippodrome had it all. 

Fantastic sets that could have told the story of the show all by themselves were never used for too long a period, with some popping back up routinely throughout the performance. Prince's ballroom was particularly impressive. 

Whilst the sets were terrific, the costumes worked to accompany them very well. Always vibrant the whole ensemble was co-ordinated appropriately. Even the younger members of the performers from the Bristol School of Dancing, who drew plenty of applause from the crowd.

On to the special effects, which it is fair to say absolutely blew the mind of those in the audience on the evening. It is difficult to say too much without giving anything away, I would just say expect the unexpected and be ready for a fantastic moment at the end of the first act.

Among these effects are numerous magic and illusion tricks which work absolutely brilliantly with the piece. Conley sells most of these fantastically well, as one would expect from the experienced performer that he is. 

The show itself is coherent and flows very well, even though it does stray a little from the original story of Cinderella and does not actually feature a father or evil step-mother figure. Somehow you don't seem to mind, as all comedy comes from Conley's buttons, the evil step-sisters Tess and Claudia (well portrayed by Ben Stock and Neal Wright) and also from Wan as the Fairy 'Gokmother'.

A mixture of modern songs, including from the Greatest Showman and a couple that would have taken some in the audience back 30/40 years were well choreographed and performed well by all, particularly the singing talents of Lauren Hall as Cinderella and Scott Mobley as Prince Charming.

Now on to the performers themselves, they really worked hard to bring a show that had jokes, sequences and one-liners for all ages. I learnt before the show that Brian Conley and Gok Wan are apparently good friends off the stage, this was fairly clear from early on in to the production. 

They bounced off one another and regularly attempted to stitch each other up in front of a packed out audience. The more the crowd cheered the more the seemed to relish the challenge. Whilst this at times could have come across too much at times, it helped provide moments for jokes about the outside world in the show.

As someone that frequents the Bristol Hippodrome pantomime I can say that I found myself thoroughly enjoying this production from start to finish, the personal highlight for me seeing star of the show Conley get slightly emotional towards the end before extending a well deserved applause to the Director of the piece Kathryn Rooney and also to one of his idols Eddie Large who was actually in the audience. 

There are still tickets availabble for this show, they are at atgtickets.com/shows/cinderella/bristol-hippodrome.

A brilliant production and one which offers something for everyone over the next month until January 6, go along and see 'the beautiful magic of pantomime'.