IF you're a lover of Christmas panto, you'll know that the Great Dame himself, our Berwick, will be hanging up his trademark wig, boots and leggings (one leg yellow, the other red) for the last time on February 2. Oh yes, very sadly, he will.
There will be no more 'me babbies, me bairns' once this winter's run of The Grand Old Dame of York comes to an end. "I've always put York first but now I'm putting the country first and putting myself up for the job of Prime Minister representing the Monster Raving Loony Party," Berwick joked, when the announcement he was to stand down after 40 years as dame was made last month.
Well, he couldn't do a worse job than the lot in power at the moment, let's face it...
That final performance will be a sad once. But there are a few more to enjoy yet.
Meantime, here's a look back at a few of Berwick's earlier panto appearances. And we've thrown in a couple of curve balls just to keep you on your toes...
1. December 1971: Proof that there was life before Berwick. An airborne Frankie Desmond plays Nurse Trot to Freddie Lees' Billy in Babes in the Wood
2. December 1978: Berwick' as dame Dolly in Jack and the beanstalk with Peter Bartle as Major Catastrophe and John Markham as Private Grief. This was Berwick's first proper dame for the Theatre Royal (in 1977's Cinderella he was, strictly speaking, an ugly sister)
3. December 1979: The panto was Dick Whittington, and Berwick was the dame. But he doesn't appear in this photo. Instead it is Gary Oldman (yes, that Gary Oldman) as Puss who is earning an affectionate pat from Sharon Bower's Dick and an admiring smile from Kate West's Alice Fitzwarren
4. December 1982: Titter ye not - there's surely a touch of the Frankie Howerd in Berwick's dame as he chastises Michael Remick's Tommy in Babes in the Wood
5. December 1983: Berwick as an ugly sister again, this time with Paul Raffield, in Cinderella
6. January 1984: The ugly sisters (Berwick Kaler and Paul Raffield) again, this time with Cinderella...
7. December 1984: Berwick as dame teams up with a very punkish (and very young) Martin Barrass in Sinbad the Sailor
8. December 1984: The eyes have it: Berwick Kaler as dame in Sinbad the Sailor - this time with Robert Lister as some kind of middle eastern potentate...
Stephen Lewis
Panel
Dame Berwick, the Complete Box Set (ie all his panto appearances in York, in running order...)
1977, Cinderella (as an ugly sister)
1978, Jack and the Beanstalk
1979, Dick Whittington
1980, Mother Goose
1981, Aladdin
1982, Babes In The Wood
1983, Cinderella
1984, Sinbad The Sailor
1985, Jack And The Beanstalk
1988, Humpty Dumpty
1989, Aladdin
1990, Mother Goose
1991, Dick Whittington
1992, Babes In The Wood
1993, Jack And The Beanstalk
1994, Sleeping Beauty
1995, Cinderella
1996, Mother Goose
1997, Aladdin
1998, Beauty and the Beast
1999, Old Mother Milly
2000, Dick Whittington
2001, Jack And The Beanstalk
2002, Babbies In The Wood
2003, Mother Goose's Silver Jubilee
2004, Sleeping Beauty
2005, The Lad Aladdin
2006, Cinderella
2007, Sinbad The Sailor
2008, Dick Turpin, The Panto
2009, Humpty Dumpty
2010, Jack And The Beanstalk
2011, York Family Robinson
2012, Robin Hood & His Merry Mam
2013, Aladdin And The Twankees
2014, Old Mother Goose
2015, Dick Whittington & His Meerkat, at National Railway Museum
2016, Cinderella
2017, Jack And The Beanstalk
2018, The Grand Old Dame Of York
Did you know?
In 1986 and 1987, Berwick was in the West End, London, appearing first as Foster Wilson and Chief Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun, Aldwytch Theatre, then as Mugs Molloy in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Kiss Me Kate, The Old Vic. express the theatre’s boundless gratitude to Berwick’s work in our city for 40 years.”
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