A SPECTACULAR new production of Sleeping Beauty featuring lavish sets, flying sequences and computer generated animation comes to The Anvil next month.

And, to top it all, BAFTA Award winning actress Wendy Craig will be playing the Good Fairy.

Craig is best known as the frustrated mother and housewife in the Carla Lane comedy Butterflies and more recently appeared as the Matron in eight series’ of ITV’s The Royal. She can currently be seen as Reggie’s mother in the second series of the comedy Reggie Perrin on BBC1.

Making her pantomime debut as the Bad Fairy will be Abi Titmuss who wowed audiences at The Haymarket last year when she appeared in the production The Naked Truth.

She made her theatre debut in 2006 in Two Way Mirror to rave reviews, for which she scooped the Fringe Report Award in 2007 for Best West End Debut.

Titmuss has spent the last four years in a wide range of roles including Susan Frobisher in Fat Christ, Hazel in Up ‘N’ Under and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She has just appeared in Dolly Daydream in London.

Silly Billy Having spent seven years in the public eye, she has successfully made the difficult transition from ‘celebrity’ to award-winning actress with a CV that now boasts film, theatre and television credits.

Taking the role of Silly Billy will be Andrew Agnew, best known as PC Plum in the two times BAFTA Award winning children’s favourite Balamory (CBeebies).

Agnew has also appeared on Spring Watch and Autumn Watch (both for CBeebies) leading the Spotters Club and has appeared in two live stage arena tours for Balamory Live. He played Wembley Arena as one of the venues in CBeebies Live Fantasy Circus and has more recently completed a nine month tour as PC Plum in CBeebies at the Theatre – Let’s Play.

Taking the role of Sleeping Beauty is Sarah Louise Day while the prince will be played by Shaun Daulton. The King is played by Michael Chance while youngsters from Kelly Hopkins Theatre Arts and Basingstoke Academy Of Dance will be joining the chorus.

Sleeping Beauty is at The Anvil in Basingstoke from Thursday December 9 to Sunday January 2, 2011.