RICHARD PARR With three months to go before the opening show, the near-113,000 tickets for the entire run of the famous Thursford Christmas Spectactular have all been sold.

RICHARD PARR

With three months to go before the opening show, the near-113,000 tickets for the entire run of the famous Thursford Christmas Spectactular have all been sold.

Such is the demand to see the secular and sacred celebration of Christmas that applications for seats arrived into the show's booking office in January.

To cope with the demand from people who travel from all over the country to see the three-hour show, three extra performances have been arranged this year with the opening being on November 11.

The show's organisers are particularly delighted with the demand for tickets for this year because the festive extravaganza in music, song and dance is celebrating its milestone 30th anniversary.

And for the first time this year millions of TV viewers will be able to see the show's lavishly decorated auditorium when it hosts a recording of the BBC's popular Songs of Praise programme which is due for screening on Christmas Eve.

A congregation of around 1400 people , made up from various local church , school and choral groups, will fill the Thursford auditorium and sing a selection of well-loved Christmas Carols. The recording is due to take place early in November before the actual Thursford Spectacular shows start.

Geraldine Rye, personal assistant to the show's founder and director John Cushing, confirmed today that all tickets , totalling 112,784, have already been sold.

“There is always a heavy demand for tickets and people write in with their applications so that when our staff arrive back after their Christmas break the post bags are bulging,” said M Rye.

She explained that tour operators, coach companies, village and town organisations all over the country snap up blocks of tickets which they then advertise for sale.

Some of these not sold are returned in September and October and are available to be sold but these usually only number around a couple of thousand. People call for tickets at that time and so those remaining are quickly snapped up.

“We are starting the run of 76 performances this year on November 11 but it is unlikely that we can begin any earlier because we need enough to time, after the end of the summer organ concert season, to transform the auditorium into a magical winter wonderland which is an essential part of the Thursford Christmas experience,” she said.

She added : “We also, of course, need to allow time for rehearsing the 100-strong cast of professional musicians, dancers and singers,” she said.