THEY helped launch the career of screen and stage star Dame Judi Dench.

Now the Evening Press can reveal that the Mystery Plays could return to York Minster, with £100,000 backing from City of York Council.

Council leaders will be urged to sanction holding the plays in 2010.

They were first held in the modern era in 1951.

The world famous enactments of Bible stories were last performed in the Minster at the turn of the Millennium - to capacity audiences.

More than 28,000 tickets were snapped up, with visitors flocking from the United States, New Zealand, South Africa and even Papua New Guinea.

Members of the council's executive will be asked to approve the plays' return at a meeting on November 8, and agree to pump £100,000 into the project over the next five years. Economics chiefs believe the influx of visitors to a new York Minster event could pump nearly £1 million into the city.

The proposal marks a successful new twist in the Evening Press campaign to keep the Mystery Plays alive in the city.

Today, former Lord Mayor of York Keith Wood, a stalwart in that campaign, said the Minster Mystery Plays would be "great for the City of York", but expressed disappointment they would not be held in Museum Gardens - their traditional home.

He said: "There is no doubt this will be a successful performance at the Minster, but if the council is going to put money into the project, then Museum Gardens should be considered.

"I hope the council is going to talk to the acting community in York as people were vociferous and upset when they learned it wasn't going to be there."

Council leader Steve Galloway said: "It has been understood that discussions have been ongoing about bringing back the full version of the Mystery Plays to the city, last held in the Millennium year and generally considered to be a huge success.

"I am personally pleased that the Minster authorities have agreed in principle that they will be staged there. If the plays are only held every ten years then it is likely they will be even more successful.

"We are conscious that the campaign, run by the Evening Press, was supported by local people, and we will take that into account when we consider the report at our next meeting."

While 2010 will be the first full production of the plays since 2000, next year the Guilds of York will stage a version of the stories on the back of pageant wagons.

Updated: 09:47 Monday, October 31, 2005