A lively battle is fought each Christmas in the resort that boasts only one pier but two pantos.

This year, Worthing presents Mother Goose at the council-owned Connaught Theatre and Dick Whittington at the seafront Pavilion Theatre.

And when the second show burst into life a few days after the Connaught's, it upheld the two venues' tradition of chalk-and-cheese comparison.

Timmy Mallett is Idle Jack in this flash-bang-wallop production, backed by Steve Langley as Dick, lofty Tim Bartholomew in dame guise as Sarah the Cook, Connie Creighton as Fairy Bowbells and Brian Weston as King Rat.

As ever, the Pavilion show is an exercise in getting kids thoroughly excited - it's the Utterly Brilliant Timmy Mallett Extravaganza, loud and mad. He's on a lot, complete with mallet, and a feature is much audience interaction.

"Hiyah, hiyah," Timmy repeats on each entrance until he decides the answering volume is adequate. The young audience bounce in their seats, whooping and shouting as they are bombarded with sweets.

Timmy aims a giant football off the stage to be punched around, the audience straining from their seats to reach it.

Serious students of pantomime tradition will find omissions in this fable of the three-times mayor of London. Perhaps there is a thread of the tale but it is engulfed by Dick's encounter with his cat, portrayed with feline feeling by Lucinda Kennard, his thwarted romance with Alderman Fitzwarren's daughter Alice (Victoria Hickson) and a couple of appearances by Postman Pat.

The music is loud and the songs catchy, the bright scenery includes a rather impressive ship's deck and there is a peaceful underwater interlude during an apparently aimless voyage to Uncoca Island.

The storyline may need tightening up, or perhaps eliminating altogether, but otherwise the Pavilion's panto is Utterly Brilliant. But, in its quieter way, so is the Connaught's.

Review by Mike Bacon, mike.bacon@theargus.co.uk