THIS was an alluring potpourri of readings and music presented by Sally Bradshaw (soprano), Michael Haslem (piano) and Timothy West (reader), encompassing the deeply serious, as well as the amusing.

West, with his aptitude for suitable vocal accents, brought Thomas Hardy's Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir to life, as he described the choir members who had too many 'tots' to keep themselves warm. His American version of Christmas Parties, by Ogden Nash, which bemoaned the problem of a party next door, and Alan Bennett's Christmas in NW1, when Jessica's upper class parents telephoned her teacher to complain because their daughter was cast as an icicle, were shrewd observations.

Also read were The Sheepdog by U A Fanthorpe, spoken as if by the dog left to guard the sheep on Christmas night, and Alan Coren's play on the words 'Orient are', which became 'Orient R Us', in We Three Kings.

Bradshaw's singing was the ideal counterpart. Christmas Shopping was a fun setting of words by Sebastian Michael, to a well-known section of Orff's Carmina Burana, Angelus Ad Virginem, an ancient setting from the Dublin Trober (with a string and tambourine accompaniment by the other performers). Miss Hooligan's Christmas Cake was a lively number, the words being sung faster and faster.

Two especially beautiful songs, Britten's A New Year Carol, and Berceuse by Godard, showed the capability of Bradshaw as an artiste of stature.

This was a delightful prelude to the Christmas season, concluding with the audience joining in the final medley.

JILL HOPKINS