Once upon a time, a theatre company wrote to Danish comic Sandi Toksvig in the vain hope she might lend her voice to the introduction of their Christmas show.

Remarkably the kindly Fairy Godmother Toksvig granted the wishes of Aladdin, umm, I mean Director, and agreed to record a voice over introducing Finger in the Pie’s production of The Snow Queen, on at New Wimbledon Studio until December 11.

“We honestly didn’t expect her to say yes,” says enterprising Artistic Director Alexander Parsonage. “We contacted her through the Danish embassy because Hans Christian Anderson was of course Danish. She dropped us a line to say yes she’d do it!”

Toksvig has recorded a back story about an evil mirror that gets broken (thus incurring several year’s worth of bad luck) which will be played to the audience at the start of the show.

Listen to a sample below:

An antidote to the slaptick comic theatre associated with Christmas (i.e. panto), The Snow Queen, although a family show has some grown-up themes.

“The fairytale is about a young girl whose friend has been seduced by the Snow Queen. It’s an allegory about adolesence, growing up and loosing interest in childish things. The little girl has to convince her friend that the adult world of ice and glamour is not for him,” says Parsonage.

“I love the Grimm Tales, the originals are dark cautionary tales. They are warnings to children not to wander off into the forest else bad things will happen.”

Like all who work in the arts, Parsonage, like the name of his company, has his finger in many pies. He is a graphic desginer and photographer as well as a Director and recently went on a shoot to the Arctic circle.

“I was so glad I went to the Arctic before we started developing the Snow Queen, it gave me a whole new perspective of the North as a dark, brooding tundra, its not completely snow white, I think our version of the play reflects this.”

Incorporating puppetry and some special effects which we won’t spoil for you here, the Snow Queen culimates in a big icy finale.

“Although we have a simple set, we use our props creatively. The audience will see mundane objects like step ladders being transformed into mountains or balconies.”

New Wimbledon Studio, The Broadway. Until January 11. £8-£14. 0870 060 6646. Finger in the Pie's website is: www.seethesnowqueen.com.