A Boy’s Eye View of World War Two

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 sing all the old war-time songs and all ends well with the sound of the 'All Clear' as the houselights resume.

It's unashamed nostalgia, but it works for audiences born before Elvis, the Beatles and 9/11 changed the world.

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