I went to see a pantomime in the South last week - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. "Why would you do that?" I hear you ask, dear reader, "haven't you just seen 36 performances of pantomime in your own theatre?"

Well yes, true enough, but we're doing Snow White next year and I wanted to see a production of it.

It was actually very good for the most part, but I would have expected that - a much bigger theatre than the Swan, they take over £1m through the box office for panto alone.

That means that if they spend over half their take on production, they have six times my budget!!

However, the really interesting thing for me was the star of the show. He played Prince Charming, and hails from an Irish boy band.

And I have to say that he was dreadful. Not just vaguely dreadful but awesomely dreadful.

His acting was wooden (I'm being kind here!) his voice weak and his stage presence non-existent.

He only sang two songs - one was mimed, the other he sang a duet in which he sang about a semi-tone sharp.

Luckily for him, he was surrounded by a cast of super young people who were acting, singing and dancing out of their skins, and covered for him as best they could.

They were actually very kind as they were obviously aware of his shortcomings and did everything they could to make him look good.

I can cope with his shortcomings and I'm sure that the majority of the audience didn't notice (they were very young!), but what really sticks in my throat is that the people covering for him were probably being paid the Equity minimum, which amounts to about £350 per week, whereas Mr Irish Boy Band was probably on £5,000-£6,000 per week, and he probably doesn't need the money.

It's a funny old world, isn't it?