STAFF and pupils at Wheatley Secondary School produced a series of successful stage shows.

The annual productions in the 1950s reached a high standard, thanks largely to the efforts of drama teacher Gerard Gould and music teacher Jeffery Babb.

Former pupil Chris Payne, of Turnpike Road, Bicester, tells me: “They were the Rodgers and Hammerstein of the school drama section.”

He has sent in these pictures of a play called The Bandit, performed in about 1953. Apart from himself, cast members included fellow pupils Brenda Tombs, Pamela Gunn, Sally Mayner, Bill Scrivens, Dennis Hedges, Lionel Cooper, Doreen Malin, Roddy Evans, ‘Gemmy’ Webb, Clive Wright, Mick Church and Jill Whitehouse.

Dennis Hedges became one of the country’s top football referees and, on one occasion, gained certain notoriety by sending off George Best at Old Trafford.

Chris Payne and Roddy Evans progressed from being bandits to becoming members of the Oxford City police force, while Lionel Cooper became a publican in Glou-cestershire.

The school’s aim was to give as many children as possible, irrespective of talent, the chance of being involved.

For example, the fourth annual show in 1955, featuring two mimes, a comedy, a play and performances by the first and second year choirs, featured more than 200 of the 300 children at the school.

By 1958, when the school became even more ambitious by staging The Beggar’s Opera, there was praise from Frank Dibb, drama critic of our sister paper, The Oxford Times.

He wrote: “Amateur dramatic organisations deserve the warmest commendation when they are as enterprising as Wheatley Secondary School.”