The role of Captain Hook — panto’s most popular villain according to a recent poll — is ideal for Steve McFadden, famous for two decades as EastEnders’ Phil Mitchell. And I’m not forgetting that neither Steve nor Phil is quite the Old Etonian created by J.M. Barrie when he wrote the ever-popular play Peter Pan. But Steve’s experience playing tough nut Phil helps him to bring the right degree of swaggering menace to his portrayal of the odious, highly hissable Hook. His performance is a powerful reason for visiting the Wycombe Swan’s top-quality show.

The problem with the transformation of Peter Pan into a pantomime has always been that the story provides no opportunity for the creation of a traditional dame and the laughter ‘she’ provides. In this production the comedy element depends on Matt Slack and his sterling performance as Hook’s maladroit right hand man, Smee. The rapport he builds up with the audience helps ensure a fun night out for all.

That the pirate gang includes a quartet of gifted gymnasts and tumblers also provides much enjoyment. It’s a hoot watching The Acromaniacs going through their well-rehearsed routine at the vaulting horse, with the addition of the inept Smee to their act.

Visual thrills are provided, as in any Peter Pan, by the flying sequences. Here they bring Dani Harmer’s strutting, headstrong Peter way out above the auditorium. There are airborne adventures, too, for the three Darling children, and for Tinkerbell, here transformed from the play’s moving glimmer of light into the very pleasant form of roller-skating Penni Tovey.

Her suspicion of romance between Peter and Wendy (Samantha Brain) provides a mainspring of the plot as we move towards the showdown between Peter’s Lost Boys and the pirate gang. This provides the opportunity — eagerly seized — for the audience to bombard the villains with rocks (in truth cubes of foam rubber). Sporadic fire then continues for the rest of the show.

The one weak spot is the involvement of TV-ad puppet dog Churchill in lieu of the Darlings’ canine nurse Nana. His very limited vocabulary — “Oh yes” — supplies little to amuse.

Until January 9. 01494 512000 (www.wycombeswan.co.uk).