SO HERE I am, almost 40 years on, joyfully intoning along with the classic Python insult “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries”, which brings King Arthur’s quest for the grail to a shuddering halt at the hands of the French.

Returning to the wacky world of class-ridden silliness of my youth ensured that Eric Idle and John Du Priez’s pantomime-style musical shone out like the proverbial sword released from the stone.

It helps enormously that this nostalgic nonsense has the benefit of a fine cast. Marcus Brigstocke plays Arthur with that lovely air of overgrown public schoolboy, aided by Todd Carty’s earthy Patsy who plays coconut shells as Arthur pretends to ride his charger.

And that horse has covered some miles, because Brigstocke was in Leeds last week, starred at the Latitude Festival at the weekend and then swept back up to Newcastle. Hayley Tamaddon came closest to stealing the show as The Lady Of the Lake, particularly with the two West End-parodying numbers The Song That Goes Like This and The Diva’s Lament.

But then came a series of cameos from David Langham and Graham McDuff, which aided the air of sword and silliness, particularly when Langham became an effeminate prince in distress, begging rescue from McDuff’s bewildered closet-gay Sir Lancelot.

Samuel Holmes and Simon Lipkin added the not-so-brave knights of the round table, Sir Robin and Sir Galahad respectively. And, of course, any show which manages to include Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life (led by the dour-voiced Carty) surely cannot fail.

If this team had gone to South Africa, we’d have lost with so much more style.

■ Spamalot runs until Saturday at Newcastle Theatre Royal. Box Office: 08448-112-121 theatreroyal.co.uk;

■ October 11-16, Sunderland Empire, 08448-472499

sunderlandempire.org.uk;

■ November 22-27, York Opera House, 0844-847-2322 grandoperahouseyork.org.uk