It's a genuine drama: one of Scotland's major pantomime productions is having problems with its villain.
Peter Pan at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, which began on Saturday, is now onto its third Captain Hook since the show was first announced.
Alex Bourne, an actor who has played major roles in London's West End, is now playing the role of the dastardly pirate leader in the pantomime, following the sudden departure of Warren Brown.
Brown himself was announced as Captain Hook two weeks ago, when Gavin Mitchell, a King's pantomime regular, had to withdraw from the show for medical reasons.
Brown, known for his role in the television show Luther, a crime drama, said at the time of the announcement that, "I didn't expect to be donning a Hook this Christmas."
He has now left the production, which runs until January 11, for "personal reasons."
The Peter Pan cast also includes Greg McHugh, Des Clarke, Scott Fletcher and Joanne McGuinness.
The production marks 50 years of pantomimes at the Kings Theatre, one of the city's signature theatre and comedy venues.
Despite its Hook problems, Peter Pan is set to break King's box office records with an estimated 85,000 people seeing the show in its Christmas run.
A statement from the Ambassador Theatre Group, which runs the King's, said: "West End star Alex Bourne is thrilled to be taking on the role of Captain Hook.
"His theatre credits include the lead role in Buddy -The Buddy Holly Story at the Victoria Palace Theatre and Khashoggi in We Will Rock You, a role he played for six years at the Dominion Theatre."
Bourne also played the dual role of Fred Graham and Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate, at the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Old Vic, for which he was nominated for an Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award.
The statement added: "The King's Theatre would like to wish a warm welcome to Alex Bourne who will be joining Greg McHugh, Des Clarke, Scott Fletcher and Joanne McGuinness in a spectacular production of Peter Pan which will have audiences of all ages hooked."
The King's yesterday announced its pantomime for next year - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
It is being staged for only the second time in 50 years of King's traditional pantomime productions.
It will run from 4 December 2015 until Sunday 10 January 2016.
James Haworth, general manager of the King??s Theatre, said: "As our 50th pantoversary celebrations get into full swing, I'm pleased to announce next year the King's Theatre will be staging Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Proving a big hit in 2010, this popular title is back with even more sparkle and plenty of laughs."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article