SPAM, spam and more spam. We like Monty Python's Spamalot rather a lot in York, where the Eric Idle and John Du Prez Broadway show has returned for a third time after earlier touring runs in 2010 and 2012.

Idle is particularly fond of Christopher Luscombe's production of the hit musical "lovingly ripped off" from the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail, saying it is "funnier, more like a Python show... so it’s just got a whole different spirit to it".

Rest assured, however, it is not a case of "and now for something completely different". What worked in Spamalot in 2010 and 2012 still works in 2015. Brash, breezy and very British, the show is still a nostalgia feast for Python devotees, newly perked up by last year's comeback shows at The O2; and still accommodating topical references, such as Ant & Dec and Mary Berry pushing a cake trolley.

Idle and Du Prez combine to reinvigorate the anarchic, silly yet smart humour of the Python team, while adding more pantomimic slapstick and answering to the demands of modern-day musicals by heightening the love interest and introducing a proper woman's role (the Lady of the Lake). That said, the Terry Jones-patented convention of a man dressing as a woman is still alive in the squawking cameo of Josh Wilmott's Mrs Galahad.

Spamalot's snappy two-hour story is spun around newly crowned King Arthur (comedian Joe Pasquale) gathering knights for the Round Table and leading them pluckily in pursuit of the Holy Grail. At his side is the lugubrious Patsy (a perennial role for Todd Carty), clicking coconuts to simulate the sound of hoofs whenever Arthur rides an invisible horse. In their way stand beautiful showgirls, flying cows, killer rabbits and haughty French people, not to mention the Knights Who say "Ni" and the limb-shedding Black Knight, who never knows when he is beaten.

Pasquale's bespectacled Arthur is a warmer, gentler King than past incarnations, keen to ad-lib when the occasion arises and in his element when involving an audience member. At times he is more Arthur Daley than King Arthur, but he captures the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the piece. He bonds amusingly with Carty's deadpan Patsy and has fun improvising with Sarah Earnshaw's high-maintenance Lady of the Lake, a show-stopping diva who brings dramatic comic timing to her big song complaining of "spending too long offstage".

This is but one of many savvy numbers that in turn lampoon Andrew Lloyd Webber and glory in gay disco as Jamie Tyler's Sir Lancelot comes out in His Name Is Lancelot. The 12-strong cast all add to to the fizzing, frivolous, often riotious comedy, not least Will Hawksworth's Sir Robin in his song Brave Sir Robin, while Hugh Durrant's set echoes both Terry Gilliam and bold picture-book pantomimes, in keeping with the centrepiece anthem, Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

What a bright decision too to have Yorkshire Python Michael Palin on screen as God in God's own country.

• Monty Python's Spamalot, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york