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The sound of an air-raid siren sounds through the theatre
as the houselights fade. A 'searchlight' finds John
Cairney as his tin helmet rises slowly from behind a
lectern hidden behind a baffle wall of sand bags: 'What
did you do in the war, Daddy?' he asks the audience.
'Me?' he continues, 'I was evacuated.' And from there
we have the story of how he spent his boyhood growing
up the Second World War.
There are anecdotes about war-time rationing, life
in the shelters and relatives who went off to war and
didn't come back. He recounts his own experiences, often
amusing, and sometimes chilling, of what went on between
the air-raids. The audience get to sing all the old
war-time songs and all ends well the sound of the 'All
Clear' as the houselights resume. It's unashamed nostalgia,
but it works for audiences born before Elvis and the
Beatles changed the world.
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