DEAR SIR TREVOR, before I take a dim view of you, please come and take a gander at what I reckon is one of Britain's favourite views.

Bring your helicopter and your cameramen to Southend.

You're seeking super views for your new Sunday evening ITV 1 series, right?

Not a bad start for you and viewers in your opening programme, with the Gower Peninsula hailed by lovely songstress Katherine Jenkins, and Rory Bremner putting Edinburgh in the spotlight.

Even old Des Lynam was singing the praises of the Seven Sisters cliffs on the South Coast.

But how come Blackpool got in on the act? And presented by that perma-tanned purveyor of antiques, David Dickinson, at that. Come on, Trevor, who are you kidding?

Blackpool? Favourite view? The tower, the ballroom and the circus ring? Some view. Not a patch on Southend. Never, Trevor.

What about our pier, this Victorian masterpiece of engineering and determination - the longest such pleasure structure in the world? What about our fabulous Cliffs Gardens, or super parks?

If you want scenic beauty, why, come and stand on the platform built a few years ago at the bottom of High Street, near the shore-end of the pier.

Some of us may not like the architectural design, but Howard got his way - that is Howard Briggs, who was town mayor until recently retiring - and the vista is quite superb.

The eye can follow the line of the grand pier, out into the Thames estuary, perhaps the most famous of the world's rivers.

You can look down river to the point where the Thames joins the North Sea, seeing the sun or moon turning the waves into millions of dancing gems.

When the tide is out, you can study the watery channels that ribbon across the wide mudflats and pick out the hills of North Kent, or the cliffs dipping into the sea across at the Isle of Sheppey.

You can see silhouetted bait diggers. You can marvel at the wonder of a scene that is ever changing.

If Rory Bremner, Des Lynam, Katherine Jenkins - and Uncle Tom Whotsit and All - can throw in touches of history to boost their favourite views, so can we in Southend.

The Mayflower was associated with the tiny, but important, fishing village of Leigh, which became part of Southend. Famous sea captains and admirals came from here, too.

Not only did Nelson know the Thames, his close friend, Lady Hamilton, is remembered in the lovely home that bears her name, along the grand Royal Terrace.

The Thames - our Thames, where it begins, right here in our favourite view - became indelibly etched in Second World War history for its role in resisting enemy raiders.

For generations ahead of that war, and immediately after, grand passenger liners and commercial vessels would visit us.

Today, from the platform close to the pier entrance, you can see the fishing boats come and go.

Or the myriad sails of little yachts bobbing and weaving, or sailboarders and kite skiers cherishing the challenge, the beauty, the freshness of our favourite view.

Some scoff at Southend. Some say we lack class, culture and charisma. They talk as the uninformed and the uncaring and the uneducated talk. Theirs is a sad and a bad view.

Ours is a favourite view.