It’ll be his 20th year to don his wig, strap on his sky-scraper heels and totter onstage — but panto dame Jim Mulcahy loves the craic as much as ever.

Theatre is in my blood, there’s no two ways about it.

IT’S that time of year, when Cork’s favourite pantomime dame, Jim Mulcahy, dons big hair, make-up and loud female costumes.

HE’D never heard of “panto” until he arrived in Ireland, but Argentinean actor Marcus Bale will be wowing audiences playing a domestic appliance with a French accent this Christmas — and loving every minute of it.

WITH children watching 3D movies, playing on XBoxes, iPads and Nintendos, not to mention being captivated by the hysteria of The X Factor and other reality shows, going to a pantomime over the Christmas holidays may seem old fashioned.

SHE may be playing a dead pirate but her special talents have helped breathe life into a swashbuckling Christmas pantomime.