WITH more repeats on TV over Christmas and New Year than a man with hiccups, thank heavens for my Lancashire Evening Telegraph to break the monotony.

So I asked myself was All I Want For Christmas a Disney production starring the Spice Girls?

Was In Bed With Madonna a January sales advert from a Blackburn furniture store?

Was Lust For Life toe-sucking Fergie's autobiography?

Was Meet Me In St Louis an invitation from Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs to ex-Detective Chief Superintendent Slipper of the Yard?

Was The One That Got Away the story of Lord Lucan?

Was Singing In The Rain a dedication to North West Water?

Was The War Of The Roses my personal battle with greenfly?

Here's hoping that 1998 will be digestible and easy to swallow as 1997's TV fare has driven me crackers.

EVAN WILLIAMS, Carr Meadow, Clayton le Woods, Preston.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.