WHEN, around 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, the wireless crackled in the corner you just knew it was 'Beyond Our Ken.'

Or, as it was later to be dubbed, 'Round the Horne.'

You remember...it always followed 'Two-Way Family Favourites' and 'The Billy Cotton BandShow' and was usually followed by 'The Clitheroe Kid' or 'The Navy Lark.'

There was the intrepid Mr 'orne, there was the very camp Julian & Sandy at their Bona-establishment, the earthy Rambling Sid Rumpo (who made no bones about it..."I'm looking for someone to love") and pop pundit Ricky Livid, who liked the backing.

Those wild and wacky radio days!

All of which leads back to Kenneth Horne - writer, wit and key cog in a show which has now attained cult status.

Away from his radio frolics, Kenneth enjoyed life as a playwright. And his 50s comedy 'A Lady Mislaid' is the Springtime offering from St Joseph's Players in Leigh.

A bumbling police officer (David Hodgkinson) descends on a country cottage in search of a body; the nerves begin to jangle as two sisters (Joanna Yates and Margaret Hall) agonize over what is buried beneath the petunias; a mysterious stranger (David Farrell) drops in intent on plighting his troth.

The daily (Joan Doorey) is dumbfounded, the boy friend (David Parkinson) is disconsolate and the wife (Donna Wood) is distraught.

Director Dorothy Galvin pieces together an ingenious plot in a play simply dripping with delicious delicacies from the wonderful days of the wireless.

Yes, we have no bananas! Pop down to St Joseph's Hall for some real nostalgia!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.