Dear Reader: Calling all G&S fans - back world’s biggest festival!

For G&S fans there is no better place in the world to be in August each year than Harrogate when the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival offers three whole weeks of events and productions in scarlett and taffeta.

Despite an amazing line-up, it seems not enough of them have followed this long-running festival from its previous home in Buxton after it moved to Harrogate for the first time last year.

As a result, organisers have launched a public fundraising appeal in a bid to secure its financial future and maintain its incredibly high standards.

All festivals have to make sure their sums add up these days but it’s to be hoped the fire alarm which forced the Royal Hall to be evacuated at a launch event last year wasn’t some sort of omen for the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.

Has Britain reached an age where it’s getting dafter each year or have I simply reached an age where I think that?

All I wanted was a coffee to take to work but I found myself in hot water.

The security man must have followed me inside Costa cafe near Central House in Harrogate because I suddenly heard a voice behind me asking if it was my car parked outside.

He said it was on “double yellows” so we had a look outside and he was right, there were “double yellows” but only in the sense that Loch Ness has a monster in it.

He then explained that I had no right to park at all because it was private road owned by Covance, the drug development service company which sits nearby.

At that point I capitulated. He was quite a nice security man, really, and I liked him.

Anyway, the situation was threatening to turn into the adult equivalent of “hey mister, can I have my ball back?”

And all I wanted was a coffee to take to work.