HERE is my prescription for the perfect Christmas. But be warned, like some medicines, it could prove addictive...

Simply enjoy once a week, if you can, with mulled wine (or cola if you’re a child), mix it up with some screaming, shouting, whooping, hissing, booing, aaaaahing and foot stomping, and within an hour (or two at most) you should feel happier than Santa Claus himself.

It’s that easy.

Just get yourself along to the Oxford Playhouse in Beaumont Street, Oxford, with or without children (it works just as brilliantly for anyone over four or 94) and allow Buttons, Cinders and two outrageously cute ponies to work their very special kind of therapy – non-stop laughter, for more than two hours, in a panto that simply out-Disneys Disney.

And no, that’s not me drunk on mince pies and Terry’s Chocolate Orange. This really is the Playhouse’s best ever show (and that’s including all the plays they’ve put on during the rest of the year).

I guess I must have watched, in all, at least 20 pantos since time began, some bigger and more extravagant (think London), some smaller and more intimate (think village halls), but without any doubt, this IS the best I’ve ever seen.

The staging, the costumes (look out for the Lady Gaga and Katy Perry designs on the Ugly Sisters), the lighting, the script and most of all, the performances are all spot-on.

In fact, there’s not a single thing wrong with this show.

It’s glamorous, magical, cheeky, smart, old-fashioned, knowing (seriously, grown-ups will love it) and literally fizzing with the kind of energy normally reserved for an X-Factor final.

What more could you want?

As for the performers, who needs TV soap stars and wannabe celebrities from daytime TV when you have a cast as polished, committed and talented as this.

Every one of them is brilliant, but Buttons deserves special mention (especially when you see what a credible Eminem he makes...).

And as for the writing and direction, who needs Shakespeare and Andrew Lloyd Webber when you’ve got Peter Duncan at the helm, once again steering the Playhouse toward a record-breaking fifth production. Amazing.

So what are you waiting for? This really IS a special show.

You really will laugh; you really will cheer, and you really will leave the theatre with a smile on your face the size of a crescent moon.

JEREMY SMITH l Cinderella is at the Oxford Playhouse and runs until January 16. For tickets, call 01865 305305.