THE folk tale of the extraordinary miller’s cat was wildly embellished in true pantomime fashion by writer/producer Tony Liddington for Richmond’s fifth home-grown pantomime.

A complicated plot involved space travel, robots, fracking and genetically modified monsters, while a 1950/60s' theme allowed bright retro costumes and instantly recognisable rock ‘n’ roll melodies.

Modified lyrics helped to tell the tale and my junior co-reviewer, the delightful eight-year-old Jaime Gilpin, had no trouble recognising standards such as Greased Lightning. Colourful scenery included a cleverly designed duckpond above the orchestra pit, and the Milk Bar into which the mill was finally transformed.

Jake England-Johns sprang around the auditorium as the illustrious Puss, wearing boots, leather waistcoat, goatee and with a Spanish accent. Despite a more than a passing resemblance to the recent animated movie characterisation voiced by Antonio Banderas, England-Johns managed to make the role his own.

Claire-Marie Seddon (last year’s Cinderella) assumed the role of principal boy as Milhouse Grinder who inherits the family cat and races off to space to rescue his love.

Dame Ada Grinder, played by Gary (Jacko) Bridgens, with blue hair in gigantic rollers, floral apron, stripy socks and boots, peddled her tales of poverty and woe. This contrasted well with her materialistic cross-dressing counterpart, Evadne D’el Monte, who was played with panache by the exceedingly tall Semaj Lcmean.

A lot was squeezed into this pantomime, which included sing-alongs, dance routines in which the junior dancers excelled, outlandish costumes, goodies, baddies, monsters and multiple themes. Packing in so much requires a brisk pace, and some of the early scenes suffered from being a little word heavy in setting up the storyline.

Nevertheless, good family fun was had by all, and Miss Gilpin declared it “funny….and awesome”.

Christina McIntyre