It was good to be asked back to York, albeit after a gap of three years. Berwick Kaler’s residency as the Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame was already moving towards legendary status. Among my contributions to Sinbad was a duet, Never Love a Sailor,  for Berwick’s Widow Twankey to sing with  his sidekick, played by Martin Barrass. Berwick contacted me some time afterwards to ask if I could let him have the song as a signature number, which I was delighted to do. I don’t know when or how often he used it. I’ve occasionally performed it myself as a party-piece. Here’s a section of the lyric:

Never love a sailor;
Never take a shine to a marine.
Never love a sailor —
You can’t tell where he’s been.
With a quadrant, a sextant,
A compass and a chart,
He knows the way to navigate
A feminine heart.
Never love a sailor;
You can shout ‘hurrah!’
For a handsome hussar
But you don’t know where you are
With a tar, ta-ta ta-ta tar.