Thom Dibdin : Scots panto is dead . . oh no it isn't

Is Scottish panto dead? You'd have been forgiven for thinking so when you heard that Jim Davidson is being wheeled out to front the Glasgow Palladium's Robin Hood. Not to mention the SECC's panto, which is so fixated with its big name star that no-one really knows which one it is - just that John Barrowman is in it.

Of course the names of the stars have always gone up in lights, but it is a peculiarly English way with pantomime to shoehorn a household name, usually from television, into the show. They never really fit into the format and it almost invariably ends up being the Big Name show with a succession of glitzy set-pieces that put form over content.

In Scotland, pantomime has stayed loyal to its roots in variety and music hall. Which is why the appearance of Davidson is so surprising at the Palladium, which bills itself as the "Scottish national theatre of variety". Yeah, right. At least Barrowman can point to being born in Scotland and living here for the first eight years of his life.

Look around, however, and you'll see that Scottish panto is far from dead. Indeed, while the Glasgow venues desperately vie with each other to Hoover up potential panto-goers and plonk them into their jaded seats, the rest of the country is getting on with the funny business as usual.

Great pantomime does not depend on big stars. It's a shared experience in which certain rituals must be observed and in which the people on stage are just the soloists of the event. The audience are just as much a part of the show as anyone whose name is up in lights. They might only be singing in the chorus, or growling and howling during the ritual song sheet at the end, but without allowing the audience to shout out: "oh yes they do!", it just ain't panto.

So no matter how great the Royal Lyceum's production of Stuart Paterson's Snow Queen is this year, it will be a Christmas show, not a pantomime. It might have several of the necessary qualities for panto - particularly its sense of the power of redemption - but without that topicality and audience participation, it isn't on the bus to panto land. Not to mention the lack of a dame.

That shared experience isn't only about everyone being in the auditorium all together, either. It's about the jokes and reference points they have in common. So at an Edinburgh panto the football references should be to Hearts and Hibs, teams who the audience have real feeling about, and not some Premiership side or, heaven forfend, the Old Firm.

This year Grant Stott returns to the Edinburgh King's as the giant's henchman, Fleshcreep, in Jack and the Beanstalk. It's over a decade since his first panto outing in Babes in the Wood. Not the most auspicious start, it must be said, in which his performance was compared - and not favourably - with the forest around him.

Stott has grown considerably as a performer over the intervening years, fortunately, and it is hard to think of the King's panto without him now. He earns every boo he gets and makes sure that his well-known loyalties to Easter Road are made the most of. Exactly the kind of local "celebrity" panto needs: a well-known face but not one so famous as to be too far above the audience.

There will no doubt be plenty of jokes about the trams at the King's as Allan Stewart brushes the mothballs out of his Aunty May frocks for one more year. But they will be as nothing to the trams references for the Leith Festival's Christmas outing: A Ladd In Leith. Based, unsurprisingly, on the Aladdin story, this is the sort of show which takes the whole local angle to a new level.

For a real blast of what makes great pantomime, however, there is the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh. Having wallowed around with off-the-peg shows for a few years, they took the inspired decision to hire Liam Rudden to write and direct. That may sound like nepotism, given that Liam is the Evening News Arts and Entertainment Editor, but trust me it isn't.

These are not big, well-funded affairs, so the cast is never large or particularly well-known. But they know exactly how to get the local references right with tailored scripts that are invariably set around the honest Toun and jokes about Musselburgh Athletic.

So much is so easy, but it is the history of music hall which has been brought to the shows which makes fans of pantomime travel to see them. Old Scottish routines that have been making people laugh for years are rearranged for the 21st century. And above all, there is a sense of redemption to them, the audience's shared feeling that good will triumph over evil.

So reports of Scottish pantomime's demise have been somewhat exaggerated. It's just that it might not be found living in Glasgow any more.

Panto celebrity watch

A host of celebrities have been practising their lines for the panto season, but where do they score on the A to Z list.

Doctor Who and Torchwood star John Barrowman is without doubt the biggest star in UK pantoland this year, appearing in Aladdin at the Clyde Auditorium.

The creator of X-rated panto Sinderella Jim Davidson is swapping adult humour for family entertainment in Robin Hood at Glasgow Pavilion. Yes, really.

Former River City star is not the best celeb intro, but Allison MacKenzie brings a touch of glamour to the Snow Queen at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Their TV heydays may be behind them (and we don't just mean Scotsport, Grant) but King's Theatre audiences love Andy Gray, Allan Stewart and Grant Stott.

Decorating gurus Colin and Justin are taking a break from DIY to play the Merry Men alongside Jim Davidson, with former Scotsport reporter Cat Harvey playing Friar Nip n' Tuck. Can you hear the sound of the barrel being scraped?