Stories from across Yorkshire to make you smile

Every week in Yorkshire we cover uplifting and feel-good stories about people, places and animals across our region - and we like to shout about them.

This week, we feature a dance inspired by Ms Pac-Man, a community café serving "hope and hot meals", and the 59th annual Leeds West Indian Carnival.

Ms Pac-Man and her 1980s video game contemporaries may not seem the most obvious inspiration for classical Indian dance routines - but three performers are channelling the 8-bit characters for their latest venture.

Bradford Arts Centre has awarded Kavya Iyer, Devaki Rajendran and Sneha Semaleesan £10,000 for their project to create semi-improvised Bharatanatyam shows.

The London-based dancers have begun work on the project, with the aim of a premiere performance at Bradford Arts Centre in 2028.

Semaleesan said the project arose from the question: "What if we could gamify the experience of improvisation?"

A community café has launched in Sheffield to provide a place for people to gather in one of the poorest areas of the city.

Hope Kitchen Social Cafe was set up by Gabriela Socol and offers "pay as you feel" meals to residents in Longley, using surplus food from local supermarkets.

The café, which will be open three days a week, is based at the Longley4Green Community Centre and has received funding from NHS South Yorkshire's This Is Us programme, which focuses on areas with high levels of inequality and deprivation.

Socol said: "I want people to come here and eat and see what we can do for their health and wellbeing. To help combat loneliness we have to spread that kindness."

Last weekend, tens of thousands of people gathered for the 59th iteration of the Leeds West Indian Carnival - the largest such event outside London.

About 100,000 visitors arrive from outside the city for the event each year, including from Manchester, Leicester, Bradford and Wolverhampton.

The carnival, which began in 1967 and is held on the last weekend in August, celebrates Caribbean music, dance, food and culture.

Mark Henry, from the Rum Hut, said he'd been attending the event for 57 years, and praised the younger generation for "coming up and doing the same thing".

"It introduces people to their culture and lets people know how we live. We're similar but culturally different," he said, adding: "And it's just exciting. It's an exciting two days."

Two founder members of Eurovision Song Contest winners Buck's Fizz will help mark a charity's 50th anniversary by revealing the results of a campaign to convert CDs into cash for good causes.

Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston, now performing with The Fizz, will be at Selby Abbey in November.

The group will perform as Up for Yorkshire announces the sum raised by its Every Disc Makes a Difference campaign, set up to raise charity cash and stop tonnes of unwanted CDs and DVDs going to landfill.

Project manager Matt Fisher said: "This campaign is a brilliant way for people to recycle unwanted discs and make a real impact right here in North Yorkshire."

Residents turned out to surprise their much-loved postman on his 50th birthday after he left it too late to book the day off.

Lee Schuller, who has been delivering letters and parcels in Beeford, East Yorkshire, for more than half his life, said he did not want a fuss for his birthday.

But more than 250 residents decorated the village and gathered at the community centre to show their love and sing him happy birthday.

Lee said: "There are not many people that can say they don't actually mind coming to work. I'll never be a millionaire, I'm not rich in the pocket, but I'm rich in life."

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