Theatre Royal Winchester’s traditional pantomime, Peter Pan, has been nominated for an award in the Great British Pantomime Awards in the Best Song Sheet category. Ed Thorpe, who played Smee in last’s year extravaganza, performed the song, Ahoy There Shipmates, Ahoy There Smee, which had been written by Simon Slater with lyrics by James Barry.

The winners will be announced at a spectacular awards ceremony at the New Theatre Wimbledon on Sunday 15 April. The awards will be hosted by panto veteran Christopher Biggins and will feature performances from previous leading lady winner Olivia Birchenough, CBBC favourite Mr Maker and Britain’s Got Talent’s Ronan Parke amongst many others.

The judging team visited over 200 pantomimes across the country during December and watched two performances of Peter Pan at Theatre Royal Winchester during the run. The judging panel was made up of over 20 experts comprising of pantomime and theatre academics, current and retired theatre performers and creatives and critics all who have a strong passion, understanding and knowledge of pantomime. The performances were marked against a number of criteria and quality benchmark.

Deryck Newland, Chief Executive of Live Theatre Winchester which incorporates Theatre Royal comments: “Theatre Royal Winchester's pantomime is an intrinsic part of the city's festive celebrations. The performance values go from strength to strength each year and to be recognised in these national awards is a great testament to the whole team involved in putting the show together. Congratulations to Ed Thorpe for his performance of Ahoy There Shipmates - the audience was captivated by this song every single show and this nomination is fully deserved! Oh yes it is!”