It is an unlikely affair, but a tremendously jolly one. The Bolshoi Ballet opened its celebratory season at London's Royal Opera House - 50 years since that original and eye-opening visit - on Monday night with The Pharaoh's Daughter. This is Pierre Lacotte's evocation of Marius Petipa's first and innovatory spectacular for his St Petersburg audience in 1862. The dramatic action was typical of its time, the ballet less so in its splendiferous effects, and its durability such that it lasted, incredibly, into the Soviet era.

Nothing remains of that staging save a score by Pugni of conventional amiabilities, and a libretto. These showed Lacotte how he might proceed in his summoning up of this ghost, and the result is a Carry On romp that only needs Kenneth Williams and an asp to be entirely perfect. (There is, I must advise you, a cobra in a vase of flowers, which does very well instead.)