PANTO-lovers have been reassured that the show will go on this year – even if it has to be in a tent.

York Theatre Royal is currently undergoing a £4.1m makeover which is due to be completed by the beginning of October.

For more than 20 years the theatre has been home to an annual panto featuring Berwick Kaler and this year the show is intended to be the first following the revamp.

But the theatre has admitted considering the possibility of staging Dick Whittington And His Meerkat in a 1,000-seat tent at the National Railway Museum should there be delays.

Chief executive Liz Wilson said: "There's always the danger the completion date won't be hit; we would be naive not to think that may be the case.”

But she said the pantomime would never be cancelled and that if the theatre was not ready, an option "could be this massive and wonderful structure at the NRM."

The theatre tent is being set up at the NRM for the theatre’s summer residency and will be used to stage In Fog and Falling Snow and The Railway Children.