Of my three Christmas ’81 shows, this was the one I felt closest to, for a number of reasons. For a start, it wasn’t a straightforward pantomime, as the others were. Instead, my friend Rony Robinson adapted the Brothers Grimm version of the tale for the seasonal stage, in contrast to the usual nursery-fied source , that of Charles Perrault. This was, it’s worth noting, some five years before James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim tackled the Grimm fairy tales in Into the Woods.  The director, my friend Chris Honer, cast an excellent singer-actor, Judy Hopton, to play the title role, supported by regulars from his rep company, most of whom I knew very well.

Rony’s approach permitted me to be more adventurous with the songs I wrote for Cinderella and her pal Buttons (played by Paul McCleary), but I didn’t do as well with the more regular pantomime elements, which were necessarily retained — we didn’t want to alienate the audience. Although we probably did.

There were two designers — one for costume, one for set —  one of whom I instantly fell for, which resulted in my basing myself in Derby for three years while he was working there.