They’ve tasted the glory of playing to an Albert Hall audience, they’ve had a record in the charts, they’ve been on TV. And now ten members of the Wallingford parish church choir go to the other end of show business in the Sinodun Players pantomime, Aladdin.

The show runs from tomorrow until January 28 and tickets are selling like umbrellas in a downpour.

“It’s a huge contrast playing to 5,000 people at The Albert Hall, and doing the panto here but I love them both,” says Will Lidbetter, a regular in the choir and on the Corn Exchange stage.

The choir from St Mary’s Church won a competition run by Universal Records and Classic FM. The prize was an appearance at the Albert Hall and a recording contract. Their CD reached No 2 in the classical chart.

Will says: “It was amazing being at the Albert Hall and we loved it. But this Sinodun panto is such great fun. We always get great crowds and it’s a riot of colour and energy.”

He and fellow choristers David Simmons, Fiona Prince, Barbara Wood, Angela Spokes, Harriet Wheatley, Jerry Bucklow, Liz and Richard Wooldridge and musical director Sue Ledger, will be helping on and offstage for the panto.

“We’d love to get close to full capacity audiences,” says producer Paul Cleverley, whose wife Rebecca plays the title role.

Director Ric Harley says: “We have a big reputation to live up to — Sinodun’s panto has won the award for best panto in the county for two years on the trot and with good reason. So I’m trying to make sure we keep up that high quality with lots of fun, movement and colour — and all your panto favourites.”

And they get to sing as well — which is music to the ears of the Albert Hall choir veterans. “It’s a very different type of music to the material we do with the choir,” says Will, “but it’s fun and lively — although I can’t see us ever doing it in the church.”

Tickets from the Corn Exchange box office, 01491 825000, or from the website www.cornexchange.org.uk