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Spare a thought on Blue Monday for performers from the country's pantomimes, many of which came to an end at the weekend.

After weeks of piling on the wigs, the costumes and the greasepaint, twice and sometimes three times a day, it has to be something of an anti-climax to wake up to a panto-free season.

At last night's final performance of Aladdin at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, panto veteran Gerard Kelly admitted the cast had mixed feelings about the last show.

On the one hand, he admitted it was a blessed relief, but that's tempered with genuine sadness that the family they've created over the past three months is once more scattering in all directions.

For my own family - including one panto virgin, two veterans of classic panto and a five year old who just wanted an excuse to kneel up on his chair and bellow at the the top of his voice - it lived up to all expectations.

Cheesy traditions and complete anarchy all in one package - which at almost three hours long, seemed to be something even the cast were loathe to say goodbye to.

Kelly extended the curtain call further to pay tribute to all the behind the scenes staff, who don't get the chance to take a bow.

But it was Kelly himself who was called back for another bow - to mark the fact that this is his 20th year in panto.

It's easy to underestimate Kelly's abilities - which perhaps also says something about our sniffiness about panto.

But whether he's running round the audience with a water pistol, trying to make his fellow performers corpse with ad-libbed jokes, or delivering double entendres with a cheeky wink, he's enormously watchable.

His "curry song" is pure vaudeville - think vintage Francie and Josie - and charms the audience in much the same way.

Let's hope he's already signed up for the next one. Not that it seems to worry the diehards.

Tickets are on sale already - and being snapped up with only the sparsest details of the next show.

And for most theatres, in the current climate, panto season isn't just a time of year.

It's the lifeline that keeps the rest of the season afloat.