Yesterday, an intrepid team of people gathered at the studios of Seaside FM to put on a panto. I don't know if any of this came across on the air, but it was a fairly hectic day, with several hours of casting, rehearsals, and other preparations leading up to the live performance at 1pm. No legs were broken in the production of this play!

Work for this began back in November of last year. The idea of a panto was suggested by Lois, Mary, and Judith, members of the Withernsea Writers who are regular guests on my show (Thursday afternoons. Tune in!). They had the plot already written, and a couple of scenes. I went along to their meetings to help get the script finished in time, mostly as typist, though I can lay claim to a few of the jokes.

With the script completed, we got together shortly before Christmas for a first read-through, along with Felicity who had agreed to direct the play, and Lois's husband Reg who would be creating the sound effects. We had a lot of fun doing all the voices (six people, fifteen parts!), and made copious notes to improve the first draft of the script.

It had always been the intention that the Seaside FM presenters would be performing in the panto, though of course I can't possibly reveal whether any parts were written with anyone specifically in mind! (Diggy, where were you? I had to play Colin the Cod because of you!) On the Saturday morning, we tried Big Dave and Paul Ashworth as the Ugly Sisters, before swapping Justin for Paul. The role of Zipper was perfect for Paul, coughing and wheezing exactly as the script demanded. Kevin our researcher, who organizes all the guests for the station, doesn't normally come on air, and in fact this may have been his first time behind the mic, but he was a natural as both the heroine's weak father Johnny Haddock and King Alfred. In other words, he was his own in-law!

It was all pretty exciting, and with the studio mics set to their widest range there could be no whispering or prompting each other once we were on air – though at least on radio you don't have to learn your lines! As well as playing more parts than I care to remember, I took pictures for posterity (which you can see in our gallery), and trying to do too many things at once meant I had to be nudged on several occasions!

I had great fun, and I think everybody else did too. Expect more live drama on Seaside FM soon!