Cool Britannia - Hurling sweets at panto 'too risky for children'

Panto stars have been banned from throwing sweets into the audience in case children get hit on the head.

Organisers of the Babes in the Woods and Robin Hood production at Gorleston Pavilion Theatre, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, fear they will be sued for negligence if youngsters are hit in the face by a stray chocolate.

The theatre is not covered by insurance for any injuries from sweets thrown by the pantomime dame, Mark Hudson.

Confectionery will now be dropped into the front row and passed around by ushers, ending the tradition of children catching the treats.

The show's director, Helen McDermott, said the ban was another example of the health and safety culture gone mad.

"Throwing sweets into the crowd is one of the great traditional parts of pantomimes and children have enjoyed it for years," she said.

The theatre director, Kevin Lynch, said it was a sad fact of life that people were being encouraged to sue.

Malcolm Tarling, of the Association of British Insurers, said it would be rare for a company to tell a pantomime to stop throwing sweets.

**Can we just close down the Health & Safety exec and start again with some common sense? Just quite how dangerous is a chocolate sweet for fucks sake?!

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