Ian McKellen hopes to bring some laughs with pantomime 'Mother Goose'

'We’re going to back to what has made pantomime successful in the past. It’s finding the audience when they need us most and I think the winter months are probably it,' says McKellen. Photo: Reuters

Veteran actor Ian McKellen hopes to bring some laughs to audiences around Britain with a new extended pantomime production of Mother Goose.

The 83-year-old will play the titular character, who together with husband Vic, portrayed by comedian John Bishop, runs an animal sanctuary inside an abandoned department store that once belonged to retailer Debenhams.