Lesley Joseph left the stage after opening night at the Theatre Royal secure in the knowledge she had been crowned the woman everyone loves to hate.

A riot of dazzling sequins, ruby red lipstick and menacing looks, Joseph sparkles as the wicked Queen Lucretia.

After last year's lascklustre production of Peter Pan, colour, glamour and pizazz are back in the Theatre Royal panto. Revelling in her first-ever baddie role, Joseph has the audience hissing and booing from the minute she walks on stage. Her years of theatre and television experience shine through as she carries the production with presence and wit.

Lesley is best-known as glamorous man-eater Dorien in the TV show Birds Of A Feather and elements of Dorien's penchant for fit young men surface throughout the show.

It has to be said singing is not her forte but what she lacks in voice, she makes up for in showmanship. She has some spectacular comic blood-vessel-bursting rages and all her entrances are thunderous.

However, as with all good fairy-tales, there is a happy ending and Lucretia is transformed from Ms Nasty into Ms Nice.

Peter Piper has the children in fits of giggles as Muddles the butler and, again, in a brief appearance as Ali G. And the laughs also come thick and fast when he is caged by a gorilla.

Piper's double act with Nurse Gertie (Glynn Sweet) also delighted the younger members of the audience.

Night And Day star Laurie Hagen certainly looks the part as Snow White and sings like an angel. Her duets with Prince Rottingdean (Garry Kilby) brought out the "aaahh" factor with the audience.

Repeating the popularity of Julian Clary and Dave Benson Phillips in Cinderella two years ago is a tough call for the Theatre Royal but Snow White is a step in the right direction.

Is Snow White the fairest in the land? Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. But this panto is feisty, frivolous and fun.