The end of the District line in SW19 has always been a pantomime mecca with Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper and Danny La Rue all appearing here. The best may be behind us, but in recent years Wimbledon has attracted a host of household names from Dame Edna Everage to David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. Priscilla Presley even gave us her wicked stepmother in Snow White, a performance with enough oomph to suggest she might be treating the whole thing as an audition to play Lady Macbeth for the RSC.
Top of the bill this year is Jo Brand making her panto debut playing a grumpy Genie of the Ring. Brand's a wonderfully laconic comic, but she's not a natural panto star: her style is throwaway, downbeat and dry as tinder.
She doesn't project much warmth or fully engage with the audience so we feel as if we're all in on the joke together. Brand simply doesn't appear to be having a sufficiently good time herself to make us feel safe to have a good time in her presence.
Who can blame her with a script where the jokes are as lame as they are here? She must be inwardly wincing every time she opens her mouth. "Pure Shakespeare!" she declares at one point, raising her eyes heavenwards at something one of the other characters has said. You can't help feeling that it could be as much Brand talking as the Genie. A few ad libs may do the trick.
Otherwise it's pretty much business as usual in Old Peking. The wicked Abanazer (David Bedella, eminently hissable – and I mean that as a compliment) has found a secret document in an old Merton warehouse which details where to find an old lamp which will ensure him world domination and total control over the District line. Provided of course he can trick Aladdin into getting the lamp for him.
This annual event gets brighter, sparklier, cheesier and more slick with every year that passes until eventually they might well just dispense with the story and just show us the designs and the lovely cossies. This time round there's even pyrotechnics. No wonder that at first sight Peking appears to be covered in orange smog.
The script also ambushes that much under-rated and always reliable actor Matthew Kelly, who seems a mite underpowered here as a slightly off-colour Widow Twankey. Maybe the energy is going into the many costume changes. Fortunately when street dance troupe Flawless – standing in for the Old Peking police force – are on stage there's enough energy to suggest that Wimbledon has just been subject to a small, localised nuclear explosion. There's even a rather neat, modern LED take on the old panto tradition of UV lights that is delivered with real swagger to the almost uncontainable pleasure of the crowd. The forces of law and order have seldom been so cool and popular.
Over the past few years, Wimbledon has been the commercial London panto to beat, but for all the surface sparkle, the formula seems to be slightly losing its shine. There's still plenty to enjoy but perhaps it's time to exchange this old panto lamp for new.
To January 12. Box office: 0844 871 7646 www.atgtickets.com/wimbledon
