EAGER panto fans queued outside Oldham’s Coliseum Theatre to book the very first tickets for next year’s festive production – on the opening day of this year’s staging of Cinderella.

It is the time traditionally when the theatre announces the pantomime for the following year, with a huge poster put up outside the Fairbottom Street building and tickets going on sale from 10am.

Next year’s panto will be Jack and the Beanstalk.

First in the queue was Jackie Fallon from Moorside. She’s been coming to the panto for years but this is her first year queueing.

She said: “Every year by the time I call the tickets I want have gone – we come on Christmas Eve and I want to sit on the front row of the circle so I thought I’d try queueing this year.”

Lilian Melville travels all the way from Ormskirk every year. She has been queuing on the first day for a massive 40 years but has been coming to the Coliseum panto for much longer. When asked why she travels so far and has been doing so for so many years she said simply: “It’s the best panto around.”