A PANTOMIME with a difference comes to Southampton next month.

For it comes with instructions to leave the children at home!

A somewhat ‘naughty but nice’ panto, with an age limit of 16-plus, there will be plenty of double-entendre, cheeky references and a new slant on the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk as audiences join Jack and his family, Simple Simon and Dame Trott struggling to pay the bills.

Under pressure from Giant Jangleballs, Jack ends up selling his family’s prized heirloom to Fanairy Fairy for “magic” beans, for example. What will happen when he is forced to eat the beans instead of plant them?

And how will Jack’s new love interest, Pussy in Boots and her best mate Alice in Wonderbra, feel about his transformation?

The show is presented by The Stage Door, with cast members from London and Hampshire.

Coronation Street’s Christian (Andrew Turner) – son of the late Hayley Cropper – will be playing Simple Simon alongside a host of other sterling performers from the West End, stage and screen.

The production marks a preview of what’s to come at The Cellar, which opens up early next year as a new fringe theatre, restaurant and bar – The Stage Door.

The panto will be showing at The Cellar, Southampton, from December 9-20. Tickets and information from or southamptoncellar.com or call 023 8071 0648.