THIS year's Courtyard panto, Beauty and the Beast, is written and directed once again by Lyndsay Maples and Estelle van Warmelo, the seventh time they've worked together on Hereford's Christmas treat.

"We knew each other already as our partners were colleagues, but we hadn't worked together," says Estelle. Initially, Lyndsay appeared in the panto as well as writing the script. "I think I've acted in 10," she says. "The last one I was in was Beauty and the Best (in 2009). I hung my heels up after that.

"Lyndsay is always the writer, but we work increasingly closely as the years pass," explains Estelle. "I used to read it and then email notes. There were pages of them, but over the past couple of years we have had more sessions in person with gallons of tea and laughed quite a bit and gone through it together.

One of the first questions they ask themselves is "How funny are we going this year?" But with something like Beauty and the Beast we know there's going to be more drama in it, so we looked at how how dark we wanted it to be.

"We have a panto 'bank' where we have ideas and things we want to use in the future so we'll go through that too.

"It's so much do do with the atmosphere of the country at the time - it's about fitting with the Zeitgeist. There will always be an issue and a more substantial level than just entertainment, but we don't want to stand on soap boxes. We want to entertain but without too much froth." This year, says Lyndsay, the issue that was uppermost in her mind was the current use of propaganda, and, she says, all that's needed to underline that is an apparently throwaway line like "People are so easily indoctrinated ...."

"If the cast haven't worked with us before they are always surprised because it's not what they've come to expect from panto. They love it because we talk about subtext and layers. They learn about how panto doesn't have to be just frivolity - we set ourselves a hard target."

Both Lyndsay and Estelle count themselves lucky to have found Jason Marc-Williams to play Dame Buffy Duster. "His dame is so truthful," says Lyndsay. "Everything he does is real and everyone has fallen in love with him. It's very hard to find someone of that calibre, and you just want to cling on to them forever."

Reflecting on the partnership they've created, both Lyndsay and Estelle agree "we'd both feel very daunted without the other. What we do is very different to what anyone else would do."

"Every year we go out and look at other pantos for quality control and ideas, but we never do straight lifts. We might steal the odd gag," says Estelle. "But what we do at The Courtyard is very different to any other panto and we take massive pride in it."

"Seeing what other people are doing, good or bad, is a shot in the arm," adds Lyndsay.

"We take it very seriously. It's very important when it's often the first experience of theatre for children. We don't like patronising our audience, and we tend to mix the high brow and low brow, with the fun element mixed with fancy language and topical themes.

"I still feel like I don't quite get panto," says Estelle. "It's the hardest thing to direct."