The adult in me was livid at a potentially review-missing 45-minute afternoon wait for a bus from Headington (two Saturdays from Christmas?).

What remains of the child in me revelled in what I eventually saw at the Playhouse: a pantomime whose exuberance and professionalism is just so classy.

The children in the audience clapped from the start, as Darren Reeves and his band hit all the right notes during the intro — and they positively exploded when the Wicked Witch of Walberswick erupted on stage (a really fine performance over the two-hour show by Ashleigh Gray).

Then the star arrives on stage: Chris Larner is Mother Goose and doesn’t mind who knows it. This is a Dame performance of real quality (I remembered him from two winters ago, as the baddy in Jack and the Beanstalk, and welcome his promotion). To him fell the occasional grown-up jokes (“I talk to you as a member of the Big Society: could I have some quantitative easing?”). At the performance I attended, when his push-button tear-spraying machine failed, he covered in bravura fashion: I engaged with his fellow actors on stage as they waited to see when he would return to script, which he did with much aplomb.

There are many other delights to this panto (written by Peter Duncan). Nicholas Lumley is perfect as the Duke who wants the Goose family off his estate and he has a splendid second-half comedic duet with son Clarence (Gary Albert Hughes — fine tenor voice and good stage presence). What to say about Eldorada the Goose? Will Hawksworth is a stand-out (Male? Female? Wait until the golden eggs roll out!).

There must always be a couple of winsome dancers/singers in such a show, and Amy-Beth Bowen and Alyssa Nicol do very delightful ‘winsome’. Zabrina Norry endears as the Good Fairy (of Garsington, as it happens), and Jilly (Mother Goose’s daughter — are you concentrating?) is brashly played by Nicola Stuart-Hall.

I spoke to a few young people near me at the end of the show: what were their best moments and who was their favourite on stage? I shouldn’t give away the details of the finale (that’s what they liked), but Paul Charlton’s Silly Billy was their chosen star: in classical pantomime, he is the ‘Buttons’, and engaged wonderfully with his audience throughout — despite worrying Wayne Rooney tendencies!

The child in me was still chortling delightedly as the Number 4 took me home.

Until January 15. Box office: 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com).