TICKETS are now on sale for the hotly-anticipated second in-house Christmas pantomime at Theatre Royal Winchester.

Theatregoers are snapping them up following an official launch attended by the Mayor of Winchester Councillor Sue Nelmes and Winchester-born writer and director James Barry, together with the cast and other guests at a special reception.

The cast includes well-known children's TV presenter Phil Gallagher, as well as local talent in the form of Saira Belle, from Winchester, who plays the Slave of the Ring.

Aladdin is Andrea Sandler, who has appeared in Round the Horne - Revisited and The Basil Brush Show.

When Aladdin and the beautiful Princess Jasmin fall head over heels in love, there's only one problem - in ancient China a princess can only marry a man of fabulous wealth.

And so our hero sets out to find himself a fortune, in a mystical world of Menacing Magicians, Ginormous Genies, Creepy Caverns and Murderous Mummies (not to mention the maddest Mummy of them all - Widow Twankey!) Will the evil Abanazar foil Aladdin's quest and marry Jasmin himself? Will the world's most powerful Genie help our hero, or will Aladdin rub him up the wrong way? Will Aladdin's gormless brother Wishee Washee ever find a girl who fancies him? And will Imperial Policeman Hoo Flung Dung and his team of deadly Ninjas ever find the knicker-nicker who's been nicking Twankey's knickers?!

Join Aladdin and his pals on this rip-roaring adventure, which transports us from the palaces of Peking to the crypts of Cairo, where Abanazar's secret lair lies hidden in the shadows of the pyramids.

Aladdin runs from December 7 to January 2.

Box office: 01962 840440.