WHAT an utter privilege to have been present at Grassington Players’ production of Brassed Off; this wonderful staging of the very successful film which came out in 1996.

All credit must go to absolutely everyone involved in Grassington Players’ rendition, along with the very able assistance of Otley Brass Band. With there being such a huge cast, the decision was, rightly, taken not to clutter the stage with anything unessential and so what we had in front of us all evening was the pit head of ‘Grimley’ Colliery, as an ever present reminder to us and to the residents of ‘Grimley’ what they would stand to lose on closure of the pit.

We were made to laugh at the good humour of the residents for some of the time, but we also had to cry at the pointless insensitivity of the powers that be who had already decided on the village’s fate long before sending Gloria Mullen back to her roots to write her viability report. We just had to laugh at the valiant ‘Grimley Colliery Band’ marching through fourteen Lancashire villages to a contest in each, but becoming less capable of playing after a visit to each pub on the route!

We had to cry at the poor trombone player’s quandary of wanting to support his conductor father in getting the band up to standard, while also trying to support his wife Sandra in coping with how to feed their four children.

Their eldest, Shane, who basically gave the narrative, was excellently played on the night I attended by young Rebecca Leavesley. Lottie Cuerden played Gloria, Josh Richards was Andy. David Newall played Danny, whose only initial aim was to get Grimley Colliery Band to the Albert Hall. Danny’s son, Phil, was Jack Fitzsimmons, Phil’s long suffering wife, Sandra, was Sarah Vetch.

Two ‘band’ members, Harry and Jim, were Ben Hopkins and Derek Blackwell and their wives, Vera and Rita, fiercely loyal to the miners, but not so sure about the band, were Pam Whatley-Holmes and Penny Hart-Woods. Space does not permit mentioning the names of Otley Brass Band, nor of those who had smaller parts including the two teams of children who shared their roles.

The whole experience was a huge credit to all of those involved in any way.