‘OH YES’ it was a pantomime season of joy for East Lancashire’s theatres as they had their best audiences in recent years for seasonal fun and frolics.

Professional shows at Blackburn’s King George’s Hall and Darwen Library Theatre saw the best houses since 2009 and 2003 respectively.

The amateur panto at Burnley Mechanics saw 97 per cent of seats sold — the highest since 1987.

Ar he Thwaites Theatre in Blackburn, performances of Aladdin also saw more happy punters, meaning attendances have risen by 20 per cent in the last two pantomime seasons.

Blackburn with Darwen council leisure boss Damian Talbot said: “It is fantastic to see so many people attending the performances in both Blackburn and Darwen during pantomime season.”

“The work of both King Georges Hall and Darwen Library theatre has been brilliant in putting on these well-attended performances and shows what great entertainment venues we have.”

Burnley Mechanics spokesman Mark Dempsey said: “It has been an extremely successful year for Burnley Pantomime Society and its production of Cinderella, packed houses were achieved throughout the pantomime and two additional Sunday matinée shows were added due to increased demand for tickets.”

King George’s Hall had 29 performances of Cinderella with five totally sold out. Attendance was up 24.3 per cent on 2012 with a total of 17,459 seats sold. Attendance was 81.6 per cent of total capacity for the run, the highest for King George’s pantomime since 2009 The Wonderful Wizard of Ozat Darwen Little Theatre had 11 performances completely sold out.

Attendance was up 15.2 per cent on 2012, with a total of 3,982 tickets sold.

Attendance was 84.6 per cent of total capacity for the run, making it the theatre’s best attended pantomime since 2003.

Burnley Mechanics saw 97 per cent of panto tickets sold with eight of the 11 shows completely sold out, making it the highest selling run of performances since Burnley Pantomime Society moved there in 1987.

Final attendance figures for PMA Productions’ runs of ‘Aladdin’ at Colne Muni and Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Theatre are not yet available.