OPERA star John Tomlinson returned home to put Oswaldtwistle on the map - through the The South Bank Show.

He performed at the town's Civic Theatre with Accrington Male Voice Choir and Nelson Civic Junior Choir, in a concert staged especially for the television arts show to film.

The London Weekend Television crew filmed John's old haunts with him for two days before the concert, in front of an invited audience including the Mayor and Mayoress of Hyndburn, Ian and Pat Ormerod.

John, who was a member of the Accrington Male Voice Choir as a teenager, sang again with them from Mozart's Magic Flute and from Pirates of Penzance conducted by his old friend David Wilkinson.

David and John, both 51, performed 'The Moon Hath Raised Her Lamp,' a Victorian duet they sang together 34 years ago. "He had a marvellous voice even then," said David. "He had a proper bass voice as soon as his voice broke." John was studying for an engineering degree in Manchester when he joined an opera chorus just to earn money and sang Wagner for the first time. He decided to make it a career and won a scholarship to the RNCM.

He is now world renowned for his performances of Wotan in Das Rheingold.

Last year, he sang at Colne to help raise money for the Nelson Civic Junior Choir's tour of Canada.

Tickets to hear John sing in Bayreuth can cost more than £250 and David said some people had tried to buy tickets for the invitation-only free concert.

"We tried to make it available for the people of Oswaldtwistle, for the heartland supporters of the choir," he said. The programme will be shown in spring.

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