Category Archives: Saddleworth Players

Saddleworth Players’ latest production, at the Millgate Arts Centre, Alan Stockdill’s Le Grand Return, opened last night to a packed and appreciative audience. This play, based on reality, tells the story of an elderly ex-soldier who despite his poor health is determined to return to Normandy to attend the fiftieth anniversary of the D-day landings, and specifically to revisit the French house where his best friend was killed. The play begins with broad but painful […]

It’s 1994 and the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landings looms.  Tommy, Alf and Edwin are incarcerated in Coldrick Nursing Home.  In spite of his ever worsening heart condition, D-Day veteran, Tommy, is determined to break out and rejoin his old comrades on the Normandy Beaches and salute the fallen. The friends conspire to escape and, in action that takes them from dining room to Belgian port, to French village and cemetery, they chat, they […]

This is my third play since joining the Saddleworth Players back in December 2017 and is certainly the most moving and heart-warming so far. Tommy, Alf and Edwin concoct a ‘great escape’ from their Nursing Home in the hope of travelling to Normandy to attend the 50th Anniversary   D-Day Commemorations and of finding George Penney’s grave. I don’t want to give too much away about the characters I play, other than to say, there are 3 of […]

My name is John Tanner and I am playing the part of Edwin Cooper in the forthcoming Saddleworth Players’ production of ‘Le Grand Return’ at the Millgate Arts Centre.  During the 2nd World War Edwin was Captain of the Pays Corps, a vital role (paying out wages) but frustrated not to have been a ‘Fighting’ Soldier particularly as he shows a real flare for foreign languages as you will witness during the play!! This play will […]

My father, Joe, was 14 years old when the Second World War began. For the first few months nothing seemed to be happening and, along with his friends, he thought it was going to be a great adventure. Then his neighbour returned from Dunkirk, a shadow of the man he was just six months before. Fears were raised that the Germans would invade Britain but the heroes of the Battle of Britain saved the day, […]

In 1939, my dad was in the final year of his apprenticeship at Platt Brothers in Oldham, at the time probably the biggest manufacturers of textile machinery in the world. As an engineering fitter, his mechanical skills were transferable to the production of aircraft parts which was seen as a vital reserved occupation. So up to June or July 1944 he worked long hours at his trade in what was obviously regarded as a valuable […]

I know the exact moment I started to write ‘Le Grand Return’.  Twenty seven minutes past five on the afternoon of June 6th 2014, the 70th anniversary of D Day. That was the moment when a friend sent me an email titled ‘A possible play for you here ……’. It was a link to a story in that day’s Telegraph about Bernard Jordan, a D Day veteran who had absconded from his care home and had been […]

The character I play (Tommy Hardaker) is an old soldier desperate to return to Normandy for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day.  My connections to the military are, at best, tenuous.  My Grandfather was unfit for military service in World War 1 because he had been in a sanatorium suffering from T.B. and had a weak chest.  My father volunteered in 1939 but was rejected because of poor eyesight (he fell over the furniture in the […]

On the 5th June 2014, Bernard Jordan, a former naval officer, absconded from his care home in Hove to attend the 70th Anniversary of D-Day commemorations in France with fellow veterans.  His cross channel expedition in his 90th year drew world media attention and became the inspiration for Alan Stockdill’s Le Grand Return. Asked why he travelled to Normandy, Mr. Jordan said: “My thoughts were with my mates who had been killed.  I was going […]

If I was to tell you that the current play from Saddleworth Players is about two people writing letters to each other, you might be inclined to be a tad uninspired at the prospect – but think again. Definitely think again. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff is so much more and it has taken the skill of Melvyn Bates as Director and his talented cast to bring this novel-turned-play-turned-film to life … and […]