EVERY year people ask me if I have a favourite Berwick Kaler panto and I always say the one he is doing this year... so it will come as no surprise to readers that this year is my favourite... prepare to set sail on an adventure that will set your hearts afloat.

From the opening chorus of Babbies & Bairns to the closing Hope You Will Return Next Year you will be well and truly hooked...hook, line and sinker!

Yes, Berwick Kaler and York's first family of panto are back again and doing what they do best with spectacular production numbers, hilarious plot (Berwick is a genius) and adlibs galore from our beloved panto Dame.

Great sets, special effects and costumes, sprinkle in a truly fabulous ensemble with a superb three piece band - oh and watch out for the little singing babbies & bairns too.

Yes Waggon Wheels fly, a sing along song sheet descends and Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard, AJ Powell and Jake Lindsay dazzle on that York Grand Opera House stage as only they can.

Nothing nor no-one will ever come close to what I have held so dear for so many years and long may they reign in this city as York's first family of pantomime.

Stephen Cass,

Key Way,

Fulford, York

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MPs are not the most informed group

I COULD take many issues with the latest EU propaganda from Quentin MacDonald, such as the fact that Brexit is a real feature and isn’t dead, unlike Coppergate II.

I could point out that, even including those who didn’t vote, remain had less support than leave, or the wisdom in not assuming how those that couldn’t be bothered to vote might have felt.

But instead I only want to really highlight one hilarious remark - that MPs are the best informed group of voters!

That statement is going to keep me laughing well into the New Year.

They may be the best informed on how to get hold of lucrative government PPE contracts and saucy images of tractors, but the best informed on what’s good for the nation?

Seriously, how could anybody outside Westminster ever believe that to be true.

Dr Scott Marmion,

Woodthorpe, York

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More than one 'blight' spot in York

THE principal eyesore I saw in York for years was the generally off-putting state of Piccadilly.

Penny Parish in her letter (Thursday, December 14) letter defends the blight, Spark.

However, I do like the idea of young businesses getting established, though not the vision of Spark viewed from the top of a double-decker bus!

She’s right about Castle Car Park so she and Mr Laverack are both right but surely the choice is wider than just those two landscape blots.

It’s not a ‘two-horse race’.

Other readers may have different, though not in a good way, ‘favourites’.

Derek Reed,

Middlethorpe Drive,

York

.... MESSAGE for Matthew Laverack - why not step out from behind your desk and calculator and go down to Spark.

Witness first hand how much pleasure it brings to people and how much vibrancy to the city.

Then move about the area and see how many people it distresses.

There are some things that your trusty calculator just cannot cost.

At approaching 70 and having lived in York for 45 years, I find it a breath of fresh air and a stand against York slipping toward becoming the medieval/Harry Potter theme park it seems to be sliding toward.

Let it go.

Chris Shelton,

Danum Drive,

Fulford, York