KAREN Shaw is planning to pop a little something in the oven during this year’s Harden pantomime.

But the good guys will do everything to stop her this month in the family show Hansel And Gretel.

Harden Players will present the pantomime for two Thursday-Saturday stints in the village’s Congregational Church.

Karen plays the wicked witch, who lives in her gingerbread house in the forest and tries to entice children to a fiery end.

Meanwhile Charlotte Revill returns to the principal boy role to play Hansel, opposite newcomer Hannah Crabtree as Gretel.

Hansel and Gretel will be performed on February 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 at 7.30pm, and both Saturdays at 2pm.

Tickets will remain at the usual price of £6, and are on sale from Harden Post Office.

Hansel And Gretel is a German fairytale, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812.

The fairy tale is believed to have originated period of the Great Famine, in the early 1300s, when desperate people abandoned young children to fend for themselves, or resorted to cannibalism.

As well as pantomimes, the story has been adapted in many forms, including Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 opera Hänsel und Gretel.