I’m not sure there’s a better place to be at Christmas than London. When I was young, festive West End shopping trips were the things you looked forward to all year, whether it was seeing the Oxford Street lights (in the years before they started to be sponsored by the likes of Primark and Mini Cheddars), being photographed outside No 10 (in the days when anyone could knock on the door), gawking at the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car in Regent Street, or visiting Madame Tussaud’s. Then there was panto, watching the likes of Wendy Craig play Peter Pan.
