ALI Baba will lead his 40 thieves on a rampage through a Borders village this week.

Heriot Players have put the finishing touches to a cobra, cutlasses and a camel for a show that’s reputed to be one of the sweetest in the land including music and song but still letting the action race along.

The show - the Players’ 34th annual pantomime - will be staged in the Macfie Hall, Heriot, for just two nights only, on Thursday and Friday this week, from 7.30pm.

Neal Marshall stars as Ali Baba while Tilly Smail smoulders as Ali Baba’s girlfriend Safiya.

The show is produced and costumed by Fran Bennett who also treads the boards as Scheherazade and started the Players’ pantomimes back in 1980.

Watch out for Billy Hyslop who makes a fantastic Mum Baba and Fab Rick played by Luke Starrs who somehow manages to take a break from his role as the lighting assistant to join the action on stage.

Helen Brown’s Yessah is the perfect foil to Aileen Collings’ Nossah and both set the tone during the first lines of the first act.

Sheikh Mustafa is played by Dougie Crabbe, Cassim - Donald Boyd, Shaniqua - Mhairi Finlayson and Huma - Christine Baxter.

Peter Caunt and Gavin Potter sing their hearts out in the chorus and Peter even manages to help with the camel’s head.

In a measure of the show’s scary script, no children under the age of 12 will be admitted unaccompanied.

Tickets are available on the door on a first come first served basis, priced £6 for adults £6 and £3 for children.