Home About Us News Get Involved Shop Online Guest Book Help

Me And My Girl

Me And My Girl was performed at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton, between Monday 30th September and Saturday 5th October 2002.

This show was chosen as a light-hearted comedy show, after the much more serious Chess the previous year.

It was our 35th year (hence the cake in the cast photo) and also the last show we performed as Beeston Operatic Society

The Story of Me And My Girl

Me & My Girl tells the story of Bill Snibson, a Cockney bloke who suddenly becomes hair to an earldom.

The Hareford clan, a group of insufferable aristocrats, are clinging to their blue-blooded ways by the tips of their well-manicured fingers. The family's precarious financial situation can only be remedied by locating a legitimate heir to the earldom of Hareford.

In due course an heir is found but, unfortunately for the haughty Harefords, he turns out to be the decidedly non-noble Bill Snibson, a swaggering Cockney from Lambert (it seems the late 13th Earl of Hareford had enjoyed at least one brief period of amorous slumming, secretly wedding a woman beneath his station). The Earl's will specifically states that the heir must be deemed a fit and proper person by the two very fit and proper executors Maria, Duchess of Dene, and Sir John Tremayne. A good-hearted woman beneath all her jewellery, the duchess is determined to make the best of the situation by transforming Snibson into a proper gentleman.

To complicate matters further, Snibson is madly in love with a girl he refuses to leave behind, fellow Cockney Sally Smith...

Musical Numbers

Act 1

Overture
A Weekend at Hareford
Thinking of No One But Me
Me and My Girl
The Family Solicitor
An English Gentleman
An English Gentleman (Reprise)
You Would, If You Could
Hold My Hand
The Family Solicitor (1st Reprise)
Once You Lose Your Heart
The Preparation Fugue
The Lambeth Walk
Entr'acte

Act 2

The Sun Has Got His Hat On
Take It On The Chin
Once You Lose Your Heart (Reprise)
The Song of Hareford
The Family Solicitor (2nd Reprise)
Love Makes The World Go Round
Leaning on a Lamp-post
Finale : Love Makes The World Go Round / Me and My Girl (Reprises)
Curtain Call : The Lambeth Walk (Reprise)

Photo Gallery

The Cast

Bill Snibson - Colin Richmond
Bob Barking - Martyn Fowell
Charles the Butler - Guy Benson
Constable - Steve Mills
Herbert Parchester - John Maddison
Housekeeper - Carolyn Smith
Lady Battersby - Jane Cottee
Lady Brighton - Cheryl Mills
Lady Jaqueline Carstone - Claire Farrand
Lord Battersby - John Henson
Major Domo - Paul Lemon
Maria Duchess of Dene - Anthea Hinchliffe
Mrs Brown - Carolyn Smith
Mrs Worthington-Worthington - Roma Drinkwater
Sally Smith - Carrie-Anne Corner
Sir Jasper Tring - Jack Simmons
Sir John Tremayne - David Heard
Sophia Stainsley-Asterton - Oriel Dudson
Telegraph Boy - Andrew Maddison
The Chef - David Artiss
The Cook - Val Sutton
The Hon. Gerald Bolingbroke - John Carley

The Chorus

Dorothy Woodall, Fiona Ogando, Jane Hough, Naomi Cummins, Oriel Dudson, Phillipa Dean, Sabrina Sacco

The Ancestors

David Artiss, Luis Ogando, Paul Lemon, Steve Mills

The Maids

Alison Joesbury, Alison Lawrence, Cheryl Camm, Jacqui Almond, Katie Solomon

The Pearlies

Carolyn Smith, Luis Ogando, Martyn Fowell, Penny Carter, Val Sutton

The Orchestra

Bass Guitar - Jeff Widdowson
Guitar - Liz Marsh
Keyboard - Andrew Booth, Becky Entwistle
Percussion - Brian Rodwell
Trumpet - Brian Winter, Charley Pendery
Violin - Gwen Hall
Woodwind - Alison Dennison, Chris Hopkinson, Pete Bullock

The Production Team

Choreography - Donna Weddell
Chorus - Donna Weddell
Director - John Blackwell
Front of House Manager - Tony Sutton
Lighting & Sound Engineer - Andy Onion
Musical Director - Russ Singleton
Production Manager - Stuart Veitch
Programme Editor - Oriel Dudson
Property Manager - Margaret Knight
Publicity - Rob Corner
Publicity Assistant - Claire Farrand, David Artiss
Répétiteur - Ruth Viles
Set Designer - Celia Birch
Stage Crew - Bill Skeavington, David Hinchliffe, Michael Dowdeswell, Richard Poyzer, Steve Biggs
Stage Manager - Simon Sutton
Wardrobe - Brenda Skevington, Nina Blackwell

If you took part in this show and have memories to share or don't have a profile, and would like one, we'd love you to contact us.

Show Trivia

During one of the later scenes, 4 paintings of Hareford ancestors come to life. This was achieved by painting portraits onto a mesh material. Holes were then cut out of the wall behind the paintings. With no light behind them the 4 people playing the ancestors could stand behind the paintings and be unseen. They'd align their own faces up with those on the paintings and when lights behind the paintings were slowly lit up, the images on the painting faded away with the face of those behind taking their place. The end result was highly effective.

Newspaper Clippings