Penarth's Red Herring Theatre company have teamed up with Penarth Sounds to help the town celebrate an unconventional Christmas in an unconventional way.

Together they have produced Wales' first radio pantomime, an audio-only production of Jack and the Beanstalk.

It will air at 5pm on Sunday 13th December, having been recorded in the Paget Rooms last Sunday (29 November).

Alex Wilson, who wrote, directed, produced and stars in the show, tells Nub News how Jack and the Beanstalk: A 2020 Pantomime for Radio came to be.

"Well we've been running Red Herring for six years, performing in various places including Penarth Pier pavilion.

"When we did a A Christmas Carol there a couple of Christmases ago, it went really well. We had our eye on doing something similar this year, but then COVID came along and put a spanner in the works.

"So I spoke to Andrew Smillie at Penarth Sounds just wondering if we could potentially do something together at some point, and then we just sort of came up with the idea of a radio pantomime."

Like all novel ideas, producing a radio pantomime is an exploit fraught with difficulties.

"The big problem was that because it doesn't already exist, I had to write it. Over a period of just three or four weeks, I've had to get it all together.

"The challenge was that I had to make the characters particularly strong so they'd jump out of the speaker. Pantomime is all about audience interaction, so it's not an easy thing to do.

"But luckily we have some really talented local actors to draw on at Red Herring Theatre."

To help organise the show, Alex and Andrew approached the Penarth Town Council, who allowed them to use the Paget Room for the recording.

This was the first time the actors had performed with one another in a physical (albeit socially-distanced) space since lockdown.

Tom Dyer, who plays Jack, was thrilled to be back with his castmates after a difficult year for the performing arts.

"It felt like the best thing ever. Being in that room with kindred spirits was really quite special, being able to interact and have a laugh. It felt like seeing your friends at school again."

Tom says it was a learning curve for the cast as well.

"Not having physical queues and interaction from the audience was very difficult in a way. But what you do have is the expression in your voice and the power of storytelling.

"Usually you have obvious physical ways of telling the story, but it was an amazing learning process to just use my voice to build a world in the audience's mind."

2020 has been a year of adaptation and ingenuity. Many of its best moments have been the product of people making the best of a difficult situation.

The same can be said of the radio pantomime.

"We would have loved to do something live and for an audience," says Alex. "We are a community theatre and we love to bring people together, so it really has been a shame.

"But what we've been able to do is produce something that families can come together and listen to a traditional pantomime.

"And it really is a traditional pantomime for adults and children, with lots of silly jokes for the kids and then some then will go completely over their heads.

"We're really happy with how it's gone and we hope lots of people tune in."

Tune in and listen with the family at www.penarthsounds.co.uk.