Theatregoer chose unorthodox travel method

AS panto-goers raised the roof with their boos and cries of “it’s behind you” at a packed press night showing of the Hackney Empire’s Jack and the Beanstalk last night one journalist chose an unorthodox method of getting to the show despite the snow.

Features writer Robert Crampton who has a regular column in a national newspaper (The Times Saturday magazine) ttavelled to the theatre in Mare Street with his children by sledge.

Theatre PR spokesman Ewan Thomson said: “He’s put it in the cloakroom. I think it’s the first time we’ve had a sledge in the cloakroom.”

Appropriately, this year’s panto featured Hackneydale covered in snow.

The historic theatre was built in 1901 at a time when horses were more widely used as a form of transport - perhaps better able to cope with the snow than some modern vehicles.