Editor’s Pick: Knaresborough goes to Hollywood and Father Christmas survives in Ripon

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We had two work gigs on Thursday night: the London premiere of Tinsel Town and the Ripon Parish Poll result. Let’s just say Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson and Robbie Williams weren’t at the one I attended.

You can read and watch my colleague Flora Grafton’s red carpet coverage here, here, here, here and here. Yes, we made the most of the opportunity.

Knaresborough features prominently in the film. Let’s hope it becomes a seasonal favourite, attracting more tourists to the town, rather than a Christmas turkey. You can catch a viewing in Knaresborough on Friday, when the film is launched.

If the script is anything as riveting as the one at Ripon City Council, it will be a surefire hit. There was more bloodletting on Monday night, when the main agenda item was deciding whether a letter by a man who plays Father Christmas was real. Santa survived the night, which will be a relief to children everywhere.

The next episode of Carry On Ripon on Thursday was a vote of confidence in mayor Barbara Brodigan. The result of the parish poll was either a resounding call for her to quit or a complete waste of money, depending on your perspective.

The cost of the poll — which falls on Ripon council taxpayers — was estimated to be about £6,000, so the paltry 4.66% turnout meant that the 592 votes cost just over £10 each.

The big political news in Harrogate this week was Oatlands and Pannal Councillor John Mann’s defection from the Conservatives. Cllr Mann appeared to be the truest of blues. Indeed, another councillor told me they’d have expected Tory leader Carl Les to leave the party before him.

Cllr Mann’s new-found Independent status was even more difficult to accept at Tuesday’s planning meeting when he turned up rocking a look slightly reminiscent of Norman Tebbit in the 1980s.

The big religious news was the Bishop of Leeds’ diocesan farewell service at Ripon Cathedral, which was attended by an A-list of prelates that in Christian terms was every bit as Hollywood as the stars of Tinsel Town.

The momentous occasion was, however, gloriously understated in the ‘alt text’ — the written description of images for blind or partially sighted people — of a press release on the diocese’s website. The alt text in one photo described the bishop as ‘a person in a robe at a podium’ and in another it described a quartet of prominent Christians as ‘a group of men in robes’.

The week saved the best till last. Yesterday I was invited to join the Oatlands Bike Bus, in which children and adults cycle 1.3 miles from the Stray to Oatlands Infants School and Oatlands Junior School. With children laughing, music playing and the sun shining, it was pure balm.