Who's Your Favourite Pantomime Villain?
- May 15
- 3 min read
Good Villains are super important for a great panto. Audiences love them and your leading actors will love to play them.
So, when it comes to looking at Panto Scripts, maybe the pantomime villain is a good place to start! They try to do awful things, but they have the power to really connect with the audience. And not only are they great fun to play – they’re great fun to write. Read on for the full Rogues Gallery and click on the blue links!
Aladdin. ABANAZAR. A wonderful Villain. The story starts with his desire for the lamp. Power hungry, but not terribly good at rhyming verse and overcome by his comic lust for the beautiful Princess Jasmine.
Alice in Wonderland. THE WRONG ROYAL RED QUEEN and THE WRONG RABBITS. A great example of how a very bright Baddie always chooses the most stupid lieutenants! Very funny.
Beauty & the Beast. MALABELLE, another wonderful female Baddie. Stricken with low self-esteem, she finds love in a most unusual way at the end.
Camelot the Panto. MORGAN LE FAY, VALERIN THE VISCIOUS and his MUM. A team of baddies, led by the wicked Morgan. Valerin is deeply dim and hasn’t quite escaped his elderly Mum!
Cinderella (Version 1). LADY DEVILIA HARDUP and the UGLY SISTERS. Man-mad sisters, who have been at school for years and years, but have finally been expelled. Their mother is a thoroughly nasty piece of work adored by the Baron.
Cinderella (Version 2), THE BARONESS and THE UGLY SISTERS. The Baroness dominates everyone. The sisters have a special ‘Mummy Bell’ to summon her. Loses all dignity at the Ball. Great fun to play. The Ugly Sisters are as man mad as they are in Version 1.
Dick Whittington. KING RAT. Uber theatrical! The only one of my Villains who speaks entirely in rhyming verse - including one crazy 14-line section with Idle Jack, all rhyming with the word ‘Dick’.
Jack and the Beanstalk. GIANT BLUNDERBORE and his henchman, SLIMEBALL. Slimeball is, as his name suggests, very slimy and spivvy. The Giant is comically and very unsuitably smitten with the Princess.
Mother Goose. The Wicked Troll SMORG and BARON VON RUMPENSMAKKA. Smorg is a wrong’un, but I always feel a little bit sorry for him… The Baron is a rakish womaniser, rather too confident of his own charms.
Puss in Boots. FAIRY PERNICIA and the OGRE GRIMGRAB. Pernicia is the chippy younger sister of the good fairy. The Ogre wears a toupee and is deeply vain. Vanity rarely ends well in panto!
Rapunzel. WITCH GOTHEL and WAYLON THE WEASEL. Gothel is a really complex Baddie to play. A great part to get stuck into – and her pet Weasel is a sheer delight!
Robin Hood & the Babes in the Wood. THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM and his Tax Collector, DENNIS. As with so many Villains, the Sheriff is undermined by unbelievable stupidity at key moments. He dominates Dennis, who he bullied at school. The taunt “Poopyhead!” sends Dennis into anguished and very comic rage.
Sleeping Beauty. CARABOSSE and her cat, SPINDLESHANKS. Carabosse is entirely undermined by her childishly competitive relationship with her cat, Spindleshanks. The audience always love them. Particularly the scene where they both want to play the ‘little old lady, who spins and spins…’
Snow White. QUEEN GRIMELZA. Another great female baddie. Vain – and also unbelievably stupid at key moments. After all, who in their right mind would entrust the murder of Snow White to the thoroughly incompetent, Bogwort and Stinkwort…?
Treasure Island. LONG JOHN SILVER, BLOOD BOILER, GIZZARD SLITTER, THE FRIDGE – and THE LADIES OF THE SMUGGLER’S COVE WOMEN’S INSTITUTE. The idea of involving the ladies of the Women’s Institute as part of Long John Silver’s wicked crew is the comic gift that keeps on giving…!
See all our pantomime scripts here and find out how to request your free reading copies.