look behind you

Today I watched the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, which is a typical Christmas season event. Pantomimes are mainly British and have a few important conventions, which usually include:

• The principal boy ls played by a young woman;
• An older woman (dame or widow) is played by a man in women's clothing;
• There is lots of risqué double entendre, making innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases;
• There is a great deal of audience participation, including calls of "look behind you", and "oh yes it is" or "oh no it isn't";
• There should be a song where the audience is divided at least into left and right halves, or ideally, men, women, children and usually insultingly 'poor people at the back', 'posh people upstairs' etc.
• The pantomime horse or cow is played by two actors in a single costume – one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.

Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he 'live, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.