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We were to meet up with fellow members outside the Playhouse about half an hour before curtain-up. When Christopher Timothy turned up and chatted to us about him "gasping for a cup of tea" , and then Burt Kwouk arrived and had a chat as well, well, we knew we were in for a very special night.
Slowly but surely the gathering throng grew larger until it was time for the doors to open. By then I had just about run out of "look there's ….." at each new recognition of someone famous. The stage was all lit and set when we took our seats. To the left was the 'spot-effects' girl with penny whistles, saucepan lids, door knockers and all manner of things to make "instant on-the-spot" noises. To the right stood Christopher Timothy in 'BBC Announcer' mode. Centre were the John Wilson Orchestra reprising the role of Wally Stott. Front-left was John Glover and middle-stage was Son of Secombe, Andrew, and stage right of him was Jeffrey Holland.
Then, cue music, a little tune-up, and on walked the Producer, Dirk Maggs.
(I wanted to include here his own words as featured on the official BBC cassette & CD of the show, but it's too large a file to be readable when I squeeze it down to fit this page).
A lovely introduction, telling the tale of how he and Spike got together to make this night a reality, and how it was ten years in the planning, then on with the show. Cue Chris in perfect voice with "Ladies & Gentlemen…." and the show began. To get the full atmosphere of the evening you could do no better than to have listened (and recorded?) the show on Radio 2, or better still actually gone out and bought the CD (on ISBN 0563 535954).
The photographs here on this page were taken by Adrian Briggs from the Surrey & Hants group, at the "after-show party" in the bar, with drinks flowing 'well into the night'.
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