CUT throat business, musical theatre. Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, is for the chop at the Grand Opera House, York, because Aussie soap star Jason Donovan has pulled out.

The official statement from The Ambassador Theatre Group would have it that: "Mr Donovan is unable to play from March 27 to April 1 and the producers have decided that his performance in the title role is so integral to this production that they have taken the rare step of cancelling that week."

The Diary, however, can reveal the real reason for the cancellation. Jason fancied a week's holiday during the tour, and because York is the smallest venue on the itinerary, the Opera House week has been cut.

"It's very disappointing because advance ticket sales were comparable to successful week-long shows, and based on that, I would have expected Sweeney Todd to have done very well in York," says Opera House press officer Celestine Dubruel.

This is the third musical run to bite the dust at the Opera House this season. The national tours of Frankenstein and Personals, The Musical, have been called off, leaving the Cumberland Street theatre with only two one-night shows between March 21 and April 8.

The good news for disappointed Jason Donovan fans is that one of these two shows stars a couple of men with all the cosmopolitan charm and clean-cut good looks of Kylie's one-time squeeze.

Roll on, then, the Chuckle Brothers.

YORK'S middle classes are a filthy bunch. How do we know? Because the city's cleaners have dished the dirt.

According to a new survey, nearly one in five has walked in on their clients in a "sexually-compromising situation" while an unfortunate four per cent had been asked to clean up their employer's bedroom after a night of passion.

Moreover, the people who "do" sometimes did. Twelve per cent of York cleaners claimed they had been propositioned by their employer, with one man admitting to accepting the offer.

Although not ones to wash dirty linen in public, nearly four out of ten said they had witnessed extra marital liaisons among their employers. One York cleaning woman said she had to turn a blind eye when her boss's girlfriend showed up for a romantic afternoon - while his wife was out with the kids.

But the results of the survey, by cleaning products firm OzKleen, aren't all grubby. Turns out that York was the cleanest city in the UK. Thirty per cent of York cleaners regularly turned up at their clients' house to find it had been tidied in anticipation of their arrival.

Updated: 09:49 Thursday, March 02, 2006