Behind you!

The news that a Panto company will soon be casting for a production of Dick Whittington in Colwyn Bay should prove welcome relief for CCBC chief executive, Byron Davies. The real-life character on which Dick is based - Richard Whittington - was, of course, a Councilman and the grandson of a Knight - Sir William de Whittington. Richard had an interesting life, being imposed as Lord Mayor of London on the city by the King in 1397. The deposition of Richard II in 1399 did not affect Whittington and it is thought that he merely acquiesced in the coup led by Bolingbroke. Whittington had long supplied the new king, Henry IV, as a prominent member of the landowning elite and so his business simply continued as before. He also lent the new king substantial amounts of money. He was elected mayor again in 1406 and in 1419, becoming a living legend in the process. In 1416, he became a Member of Parliament, and was also in turn influential with Henry IV's son, Henry V.  Despite being a moneylender himself he was sufficiently trusted and respected to sit as a judge in usury trials in 1421. Whittington also collected revenues and import duties.

Byron will almost certainly be thinking fondly of Dick’s successes, while simultaneously muttering about the fact that he, at least, didn’t have to contend with the internet. However, perhaps Byron would be better advised to consider the fate that befalls the baddie in most pantomimes. Cinderella ultimately married her Prince, despite the Step-mother’s attempts to prevent her enjoying life. In Goldilocks, a tale which conflates threads from Snow White and the original Goldilocks by Robert Southey, which uses an old woman as an arrogant interloper invading the Bears’ house, the visitor in both cases eats and drinks the residents’ comestibles, before falling asleep on their bed and - in the original story - leaps from the window after wreaking havoc on the belongings of the trusting and welcoming bears but is never seen again. In Sleeping Beauty the evil controlling influence of the Wicked Fairy is ultimately brought to nought by love and honour.

Of course, these are fairy stories, and we all know they don’t hold water in the real world. But one theme that does run throughout all moral tales is that repression, fibbing and high-handedness bring their own rewards - usually unpleasant ones. Let’s just hope Bryon doesn’t decide to go and buy any beans...