First I’ll mention the cat — because, for once in a Dick Whittington, our hero’s faithful companion at Aylesbury is a character that convinces. Properly to scale, down on all fours and with a rat-defying miaow to die for — as many rats indeed do — Kayleigh Wilson’s Tommy is a true star turn.

Not, the star of the show, of course: that’s Jonathan Wilkes’s Dick. Oh dear. That first name makes it so hard to avoid double entendre. It will perhaps come as no surprise to learn that here not the slightest effort is made to avoid it.

Don’t imagine, though, that this panto is any kind of smut-fest. Children can be taken along without fear of embarrassing questions being asked later about the show’s content.

The man-hungry propensities of Christian Patterson’s astonishingly garbed Sarah the Cook might in other situations raise a juvenile eyebrow or two, I suppose, but in the madcap world of panto this is merely par for the course.

Wilkes (who shares directing duties with Patterson) proves himself an engaging star whose easy stage presence dominates the production. He sings well, too, in a show (musical director Dean Austin) that is notably easy on the ear.

Fine work is done by Steven Serlin as a hissable King Rat and by EastEnders’ Gillian Wright as Fairy Bow Bells. Meanwhile, men in the audience are likely to share Dick’s enthusiasm for the lovely Alice Fitzwarren, as played by Suzanne Carley.

Until December 31. Tickets: 0844 871 7607 (www.ambassadortickets.com/aylesbury).