Robbie Williams is not a pantomime dame

So, it's come to this: Robbie Williams is doing panto.

Oh, yes he... oh, please yourselves.

He's going to appear as hologram genie in the Stoke Regent's Aladdin, which is starring - oh, the surprise - Jonathan Wilkes.

It sounds like a cracking night out - yelling "Robbie Williams is behind you" at Wilkes is something every tabloid editor and gossip hound dreams of.

It's also the second time this year Williams has appeared as a hologram - he was there in annoyingly unpunchable form during the Take That gigs. Perhaps he's only prepared to appear like this now, and Parkinson will have to listen to some lightbulbs blubbing about how nobody understands how difficult it is being rich.

Let's try not to think of the actual jobbing actor who would have loved the chance to play the genie and earn some money at Christmas who's been elbowed aside by a magic lantern version of a pop star.

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