Classic comedy from The Funtington Players with The Titfield Thunderbolt

Telling the story of a group of villagers trying to keep their branch line operating after British Railways decided to close it, the 1953 British comedy film was directed by Charles Crichton and starred Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relph and John Gregson.

The play – to be staged by the Funtington Players from November 22-26 at West Ashling and Funtington District Hall – is based on the film. Directing it will be Barbara MacWhirter who put it forward: “I just love this sort of thing. I like things that involve fairly big casts and I love all those old films anyway. It was on TV recently and I've still got it recorded. I love ensemble comedies. Everybody really gets into the spirit of it and everybody joins together. They are all coming up with ideas for props and costumes and it makes it much more of a whole production if you know what I mean.

“It's a feel good play and I hope everybody will come and see it and just have a good time. It takes us back to country life in the 1950s and the days of steam railways.

"T E B Clarke was inspired by the closure of the Tal-y-llyn railway in Wales. It was due to be closed. It was privately owned and the owner died but the community got together and saved it. It is still running today. It was the first preserved railway in the world, I believe and the writer was inspired by that. The play is about a group of people who are shocked by the announcement that their railway is going to close. They decide they're going to preserve it and they get together to try to run it themselves. There are various obstacles and ups and downs. There's also a chap that is trying to run a rival bus service so they have all sorts of problems but the community gets together, all the different people. The whole piece is all about community and I think we need that after Covid and the Queen's death. It's about community being together. And we've also had help from the Chichester District Society of Model Engineers. We've done a little video trailer with them using one of their railways. They have been very helpful in terms of props and everything.

“This is our third production back after all the lockdowns. The first was A Bunch Of Amateurs last year and then in the spring we did Our Country's Good. I do think audiences are coming back but it has been very strange. We have lost quite a lot of people that have not continued coming and I really don't think we're back to normal yet. It has been quite a challenging production to do technically with steam trains and buses but it's a great cast and it's going to be a lot of fun. I have got people that I've worked with up at West Dean and also other people from the company.”

And Barbara is delighted at the way it's coming together. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/funtingtonplayers​​​​​​​