Blue singer Antony Costa left himself open to the obvious joke as he made his apples-and-pears “shut your mouth” entrance as the villainous Baron Fleshcreep, to a chorus of boos.

“Oh look, it’s Danny Dyer” heckled Silly Billy, played by Ant Payne, pointing as if he were one of the five-year-olds mocking the show’s star from the stalls.

This was exactly what Costa wanted according to pre-show interviews, having told producers “I ain’t no Prince Charming mate” and asked to play the villain.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he egged on the crowd, hands outstretched in a Liam Gallagher pose.

Dressed in sparkling suit and top hat, his take on the Giant’s henchman Fleshcreep could just as easily have seen him eating jellied-eels and chasing damsels in distress as the Hitcher from the Mighty Boosh.

The real stars, of course, were Mr Payne and his panto better half Robert Pearce as Dame Trott, playing brother and mother to hero Jack, played by Rory Phelan.

“We’re so poor we have to go to see our panto in Chatham,” sobbed Pearce as he began the story of the family forced to sell their beloved cow Daisy to pay the evil Giant’s taxes.

Jack is duped into selling his bovine companion for five beans to Fleshcreep, this time with Costa disguised as a Scouse scally.

He faces poverty until the Fairy, played by Olivier Award-winning Leanne Jones, adds her magic touch to the lowly lentils, allowing them to grow into a giant beanstalk outside the Trott family home.

This panto was at its best when it was falling apart, with Payne and Pearce’s bounteous corpsing equally hilarious as their wink-wink double entendre and slapstick.

They were equally funny as they addressed plotholes on several occassions. Payne – whose persona seems inseparable from Silly Billy – questioned at one point why he, Dame Trott and King Crumble, played by The Voice singer Jaz Ellington, had been magicked up the beanstalk, when Jack had to go through the arduous task of climbing to the Giant’s lair in the clouds.

“Then we wouldn’t be able to do the ghost scene, would we?” he concludes. It makes no sense but then it’s not supposed to – and the audience loved it.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs at the Woodville until Monday, January 2. Tickets at www.gravesendpanto.com