BFF panto fun for service families

16th December 2014

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The British Forces Foundation has brought fun and laughter to Service families up and down the country with its touring pantomime - oh yes it has!

Royal Naval bases, Army Garrison towns and RAF stations have all been entertained by the wonderful cast of Dick Whittington - aka the Panto Bus team.

The tour started off with the opening show in Aldershot which was followed by HMS Excellent in Portsmouth the following night and RAF Benson in Oxfordshire the day after completing - the hat-trick of service families audiences; Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Since those early shows the theatre group have travelled far and wide - finishing the tour with RAF Marham, RAF Waddington and RAF Wittering.

The performances have been hugely popular. Officer Commanding Base Support Wing at RAF Benson said: "The Panto Bus was a wonderful way for our families to forget the stresses of military life for an evening and simply have fun.

"Our families have supported our personnel for over a decade of continuous deployments on operations, as well as the constant readiness to deploy on contingency operations across the globe for the past year. Morale is essential to both our personnel and their families and the chance to come together for a fun, colourful and musical evening contributes greatly to maintaining that morale."

Sophie West, HIVE Information Officer at RAF Wittering said: "Approximately a quarter of all families attending had either partners deployed this Christmas or have them deploying in the next couple of weeks, so the show was well received.

"It was a whole community event with some civilian families living in the village attending, and we had families across all three services. The Panto Bus team were amazing, I can’t express how wonderful they were, helping with setting up, to performing a completely inclusive show that I don’t think anyone could better."