YOU know the festive season’s arrived when the brilliant That’ll Be The Day’s Christmas show comes to town.

An explosive intro of Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, Let It Snow, and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town heralds a terrific three-hour show.

The multi-talented five-piece live band and six-strong lead vocalists produce a sensational sound, ranging from the harmonically challenging Beach Boys medley of Little Saint Nick and the epic Good Vibrations to Dusty’s movingly melancholic Going Back.

Outstanding in this year’s show is the new tribute to the late legend Andy Williams (reviewed and revered on the same BIC stage just a few years ago), featuring Can’t Get Used To Losing You, Music To Watch Girls By, You’re Just Too Good To Be True, and his Christmas classic It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

Augmenting the show are delightful young dancers – tiny tots to teens – from the local Carrington Hollywood Dance School, with their precise show-stealing routines.

The show’s balance between hilarious comedy and thoughtprovoking social commentary is finely judged.

Spot-on impressions, a minipanto, local references, and saucy double entendres are mixed with painful reality as John Lennon’s 1970s hit Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is performed under overhead projections of British soldiers currently fighting (and dying) in Afghanistan.

That’ll Be The Day has now collected £126,000 for Help For Heroes through its after-show bucket collections – while delivering a merry Christmas.