With the return of David Leonard to the baddie-lands of York Theatre Royal’s panto, the funny old foursome is back in place, writes CHARLES HUTCHINSON.

LENNON, McCartney, Harrison and Starr in The Beatles. Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo in the Marx Brothers. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln in stone on Mountain Rushmore. Dixon, Winterburn, Adams and Bould in the Arsenal defence. Kaler, Leonard, Cooper and Barrass in the York Theatre Royal pantomime.

The famous fours, the famous back four and the famous only in York four, forever linked together in the memory.

Except that for the past two winters of disconnect, David Leonard's villain has been baddiely missed from the Theatre Royal show, first committed to a long West End run as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, then spending last winter as slick lawyer Billy Flynn in the American musical Chicago at the Leicester Curve.

"Time moves on," said Dame Berwick Kaler last year, as much to convince himself as everyone else that absence made the heart grow harder in the hiatus that followed "artistic differences" between the two during The York Family Robinson, the 2011-2012 pantomime.

All families have their fall-outs and reunions, and so sitting together in the rehearsal room in the De Grey Rooms are Mr Kaler and Mr Leonard, Aggie Goosegog and The Dreaded Lurgi, side by side, tactile and teasing, partners in panto restored for Old Mother Goose. The panto world feels a better place and the box office is buzzing now that Berwick, David, Suzy and Martin are four once more, 112 years of service between them.

Apparently, tickets sales have surged since news broke that Leonard's villain would be swishing his cape again. "That's because last year's show was so good," joshes Berwick.

Not so, What's On reasserts, reaching for the evidence of a random poll of female staff at The Press. They were excited that the Leonard hip-swivel and matinee-idol looks would be returning. "Excited? Still! More make-up!" says David, playfully playing down his popularity built up over 26 pantomimes.

"When I came in to do the read-through on the first day, for the first time in ages I was a bit nervous", he admits, but he has since eased back into the old slinky routine . "There's something about York and the people of York, who don't like change," he says. "If they like you, they want you to be there always, doing each pantomime, and that is peculiar to this city. It runs deep in the psyche of York."

Berwick nods in agreement. "There's also that thing of wanting to stick to what they know. Here they don't stop going to the panto in their 20s and 30s; that's the difference with other cities," he says. "Mind you, you cannot get big-headed in this city. There was a man in B&Q who said to me he'd not been to the panto since that bald-headed chap [Berwick] died."

He describes the Theatre Royal cast as having the immediate family at the core with nephews around them in the shape of AJ Powell and Pocklington dancer Harry Hughes.

"If one of us goes, it will never be the same," says Berwick. "What David brings to his role, and it's strange to say it about playing the villain, is likeability, something unique that is totally, totally David Leonard.

"You cannot teach anyone to be David Leonard, and that's why pantomime is a unique form of entertainment. It's mind-boggling to find the right people for it; the technique has to be within you and then you can build on that."

Thoughts turn to this winter season's pantomime, Old Mother Goose, so named on account of writer, co-director and dame Berwick's veteran status at 68.

"Mother Goose is rarely done, probably because there's no story really," he says. "In America, they only know of Mother Goose as a nursery rhyme; it's not even a fairy story; it's just about the goose who lays a golden egg.

"But our audience will get the usual ingredients; the goose does lay the golden egg, and then we can take the story our own way – and it's enchanting. It's still good versus evil."

David looks at Berwick as he says: "It's also a story about ageing and wanting your youth back."

Berwick laughs, then sees the funny side in his pensioner status. "Have you noticed how now, if I bend down in rehearsals, the 'kids' reach out for me, and the awful thing is, I'll need help to get up," he says.

Berwick is quick to stress he was thrilled for David – and indeed for Martin Barrass – that West End roles came their way in Matilda and One Man, Two Guvnors respectively, and nor would he ever wish to stand in their way of doing so again, but you sense his pleasure that York's not-so-famous four are back.

"It was written differently when David wasn't in it, and you do have to congratulate the rest of us for working around that. But no, 'just bring David back', was the call."

Is he back for good? "It all depends on how good he is," says Berwick. "No, he's back for as long as he wants to be back, but if he keeps getting those posh jobs, that's no good to anybody."

The Theatre Royal pantomime is engrained in David.

"When I was in Matilda, I'd be sitting at my dressing table, thinking 'which night it would be in the panto', and it was the same last year at Leicester, thinking of the York shows," he says.

"It was also that I missed York and not just the panto, regardless of the fallouts that happen because you're passionate and you care about it. It's a magical city and a beautiful place to be."

Old Mother Goose runs at York Theatre Royal from December 11 to January 31. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk