The scene is a basement in the City. Cinderella, a redundant investment banker, is sobbing because she has been forced to take on a cleaning job. Suddenly, after a blinding flash, Gordon Brown is standing before her.

“Don’t be afraid, Cinderella,” he says, holding a magic wand aloft. “For I am your fairy godfather.”

“Oh, fairy godfather,” says Cinderella. “Please will you wave your magic wand and help me to escape from this life of drudgery?”

So Gordon waves his magic wand . . . and absolutely nothing happens.

“But everything’s still the same,” sobs Cinders.

“Oh no, it isn’t,” says Gordon.

“Oh yes it is,” cries the audience.

That’s a taste of what panto lovers have been enjoying this season as Gordon Brown and his ministers assume the role of traditional stage villains. In productions from Aladdin to Mother Goose, the government is mercilessly pilloried.

In the Birmingham Hippodrome’s version of Robin Hood, Maid Marion praises Robin for robbing the rich and giving to the poor. To which the Sheriff of Nottingham replies: “You’re a proper little David Cameron, aren’t you? I prefer Gordon Brown, he robs from the poor and gives to the banks.”

In Aladdin at the King’s theatre, Edinburgh, Widow Twankey pokes fun at the prime minister’s claim to have saved the world economy. Proffering the magic lamp, she says: “Now you’ve got the lamp maybe you can save the world . . . sorry, the banks.”

Jon Conway, a writer and director who has written several of this year’s pantomimes, says the trend for political satire is reviving an old tradition. “If you looked at a Drury Lane pantomime script from the late 19th century you would see political references to Disraeli or Gladstone whenever the baddie came on.”

There seems to be plenty of material. Mother Goose at the Hackney Empire mentions the increasing rarity of seeing a post office, while cuts in spending are the butt of jokes in Aladdin at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre, Guildford, which has recently had its budget cut.

Some satirical barbs are more local. The production of Peter Pan in Aberdeen names Donald Trump, who is at the centre of a dispute over the development of a golf course. He is described as “the number one villain in these parts” – above even Captain Hook.

Rory Bremner, the comedian who specialises in political impressions, said satirising politicians gave pantomime a topical twist. “Pantomime and satire both rely on grotesques,” he said. “They rely on grotesque characters and villains.

“I think topicality gives you a lot of satire in pantomimes and I think Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are recognisable. If you were depending on Nick Clegg you’d be in trouble.”

Roger Law, the co-creator of satirical puppet show Spitting Image, agreed that the current economic troubles make politicians more likely to be targeted.

“People are in a situation that they feel no one is in control of, least of all Gordon Brown. You introduce the politicians to pantomime for a bit of light relief.

Pantomimes are like caricature, everything’s overstated so it’s a good place to make a point.”

Nick Newman, cartoonist for The Sunday Times and Private Eye, said: “The political humour is coming out of wanting to give someone a kicking for the utter misery everyone is going through. Unfortunately they’re such a colourless lot. Gordon Brown doesn’t actually have much to focus on comically other than the fact he’s sulky and moody.”

It’s not all bad news for Brown. The King’s Head at Islington, the area perhaps most associated with the new Labour project, is staging a production of Dick Whittington in which the villain, King Rat, is a banker. According to script-writer Jon Bradfield, that’s “the ultimate antisocial baddie”.

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