A PLAYWRIGHT who edited the Darwen Advertiser in the late 1960s and 70s is about to reap reward for his 15-year research into the horrific deaths of two young boys in Australia.

Joe Fairhurst was working for The Age newspaper in Melbourne when he came across the story of the superintendent of a boys’ home who killed two youngsters in his care, one in 1926, the other in 1933.

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To protect his research, he wrote a play based on the killings and it won the Lyrebird award for best one-act play of the year.

Mr Fairhurst said that his passion for theatre had always run parallel with a love of journalism, and that he was fortunate enough to combine the two in 1995, thanks to Darwen’s then librarian, Stella Barclay, who is now training racehorses in the Bowland hills.

He said: “Stella was very keen on reviving the Darwen Youth Theatre and asked for my help in directing a group of young stage hopefuls.”

They enlisted the talents of local musicians and presented to the Darwen public a well-received version of Guys and Dolls.

He added: “I wasn’t at all surprised by the enthusiasm. I still tell anyone who will listen that there is more talent and more men and women of character in Darwen than in any other town in the country.

“You need only read Darwen And Its Characters by my mate and mentor Harold Heys to see what I mean.

“I got to know and admire many of them during those exhilarating days editing the Advertiser.

“Darreners such as little Chris Howson, Joyce and Dr Bill Lees, Peter Lamster, Bill Hunt, Councillor Paul Browne, reporters Norman Bentley and Joyce Kelly, Tom and Mary Hardman.

“I miss them all and I miss Darwen.”

Mr Heys said: “Joe was as big a character as any of them.”

Mr Fairhurst was originally from Wigan but settled in Darwen while working at the Advertiser and has also done shifts at the Lancashire Telegraph.

While working on the story in Australia, he uncovered a labyrinth of lies, greed and the abuse of power by leaders in politics, business, the church and education.

Now an award-winning theatre company in Melbourne will present a two-act version of Joe’s play about the killings in May next year and he will have “the very great pleasure” of directing it.

l A second reprint of Darwen and its Characters sold out in just over an hour at last Saturday’s coffee morning, organised by the Friends of Darwen Library.