Chalk up the first police involvement in a panto this year, with news that Hi-de-Hi! legend Su Pollard (above) is under investigation for a "foul-mouthed tirade" against a disabled driver whose car accidentally hit the taxi in which Su was travelling this week.

Last year's panto season, you'll recall, was enlivened by erstwhile Page 3 star Linda Lusardi dialling 999 to ask whether she could use the hard shoulder of the M25 as she was late for a performance (Wicked Queen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, High Wycombe). After the emergency services condemned this waste of their time, Linda responded furiously that "I was brought up to believe that was the number to call if you needed police assistance."

Anyway, this year it has fallen to Su – Wicked Queen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bournemouth – to attact the attention of the old bill, with the driver alleging that Su "really lost the plot, and was ranting and raving. She brought the traffic to a complete standstill . . . She was quite a spectacle in her pink-and-black striped leggings, a short black skirt and bright pink pillbox hat . . . When I told her I'd phoned the police she stormed off, saying, 'You know who I am, I'm an actress. I'm not waiting for the police.'"

Allegedly, allegedly – and the police say no charges have been brought while their inquiries continue.

However, it will not have escaped your attention that both artistes were playing the Wicked Queen. And while in some ways that's to be expected – Pollard's never exactly been principal boy material, and even Linda's fairy-godmother days are well behind her – has the time come to ask whether this role places simply too many psychological demands on those method villainnesses required to inhabit it?