PANTO star Martin Barrass has confirmed he'll be back on stage at York's Grand Opera House next Christmas.

Martin, who is sidekick to Britain's longest serving panto dame Berwick Kaler, said last he was 'thrilled skinny' to return in The Adventures of Old Granny Goose after having been waiting on contracts.

A question mark had seemed to hang over his involvement - and that of another star, Suzy Cooper - earlier this week when the theatre announced that the pantomime would be going ahead featuring Berwick and two other traditional stars, David Leonard and AJ Powell.

Producer Martin Dodd said then that further casting was to be announced.

There is no word as yet on whether Suzy will be in the panto, which the GOH says will give audiences a chance to discover for themselves why Berwick and his team had become a 'true rock of family entertainment' over many decades.