FANS braved wind, snow and freezing temperatures to bag their favourite seats at next year’s Theatre Royal pantomime.

Tickets for Dick Whittington And His Meerkat went on sale at 9am yesterday and a queue stretched along St Leonard’s Place towards Duncombe Place when box office staff opened the doors.

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First in line was dedicated pantolover Rita Wells, of Boroughbridge, who had waited more than 12 hours through the night to get 24 of the sought-after tickets for Berwick Kaler’s 37th York pantomime.

She said: “I’ve come to all of Berwick’s thirty-plus pantomimes, and I must have queued for tickets for more than 20 years now.

“We always come to the pantomime on the first Saturday in January, it’s a family tradition for us all now.”

“It’s Berwick that makes this panto special. It’s rubbish, but it’s our rubbish.

“We don’t know what will happen in this panto - but we come every year to see if the rubbish is any better. It can’t be any worse, and we tell Berwick that!”

Panto stars Berwick Kaler and Martin Barrass were both at the theatre to greet the fans.

Berwick said: “These people have queued since 4am, and some since yesterday afternoon - they are the real insane ones.

“We’ve got the title, but it’s worrying really, because there isn’t a word written and I haven’t an idea in my head.”

Second in the queue was Keighley woman Debra Allen, who arrived late on Sunday night to make sure she could get enough tickets for her group of 30 friends.

She said: “I got here about quarter past eleven at night - I had a hot bath and got into my thermals and sleeping bag and I’ve been toasty warm until it started snowing this morning.”

Dick Whittington And His Meerkat runs from Thursday, December 10 to Saturday, January 30, 2016.

It will be the Theatre Royal’s first production after the eight-month long £4.1 million refurbishment project.

The theatre closes for work to begin at the end of this month.

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