With the BBC's wartime 'dih-dih-dih dah' Victory V drum roll and the first of the scene-setting narrations, the curtains opened onto a typical 1930's living room. This was a nostalgic reminder of an earlier era of peaceful, shared family evenings and, for those who were children at that time, it recalled the sense of family warmth and the feeling of fireside security with entertainment coming from a bulky table-top valve radio tuned to a popular comedy programme. Cleverly staged and lit so as to be slightly indistinct as though seen through the mists of time and dimming memory, two children are preoccupied with their various quiet pastimes. Father sits with his newspaper beside the wireless. Mother enters the room with a cup of tea. Then a sudden interruption to the 1939 broadcast. Neville Chamberlain speaks. "This morning I had another talk with Herr Hitler. And here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine… …our two people…never to go to war again."

A comedy/love song with audience participation, expressed the relief felt at that time that war was 'certainly averted'. But then we return to the living room scene a short time later. The date is 3rd September 1939. Mother sits beside the wireless, knitting and listening to her favourite comedy show. Another interruption to the broadcast. Neville Chamberlain again. In sombre mood he delivers his 'final note' speech. "…I have to tell you now that… this country is at war with Germany"

From that evocative opening the cast took us through some of the highs and lows of the years of war which followed, leading to the 1945 VE Day and then VJ Day. In a sequence of stage actions and tableau, interspersed with songs and comedy monologues of the time, and with heartwrenching narratives recounting dreadful but factual events and still painful personal memories, we were taken back to those wartime events which have become part of our folk memory. A piece about the effect of the 'phoney war', and re-armament preparations for the inevitable real war, on civilian life and occupations, with an eye witness account of the bombing of Coventry - and the gruesome reality of shattered lives and bodies. Then the break-up of families due to the call-up… "Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye" Moving, but nothing compared to the scene recalling the childrens' evacuation farewells with the sad attempts to jolly the children, now separated from their Mothers, with cheery childhood songs. "Hey little hen, when when when will you… " Haunting. And too strong for many in the audience.

Then a personal recollection of growing up in a city under bombardment, from the Home Guard, laughable with broom handles instead of rifles, shouting "Bang!" and determined that Hitler's hordes shall not pass, to the awful reality of death or of surviving, possibly with crippling injuries, under the rain of bombs.

A comedy duologue reflecting the defiant spirit of the population. The evacuation from Dunkirk, snatching survival from the jaws of disaster. A recollection from a Stradishall airman recounting events when German battleships raced for cover through the Straits of Dover and were attacked by bombers from our local airfield, with eight aircraft lost. And then the morale boosting sounds of bagpipes as a detachment of Highland Light Infantry marched onto the airbase in solidarity with the devastated aircrews.

And so the evening passed. The Battle of Britain recalled with a minimalist setting, a 'scramble', the sounds of aerial warfare, the emptiness of the stage capturing the loneliness of the waiting at homes and airbases. Then the reality of those who didn't return. Just another sortie, but here's the favourite silk scarf, found by the returning crews, held silently in respectful tableau, the owner never to return.

The Home Front. A comedy moment, which brought the laughter of recollection of the culinary advice, based more on the improbable than the practical, but which carried the country through years of deprivation. Ending with a tribute to the Land Army and the men of the Merchant Navy and their sacrifices to ease the shortages.

December 1940. The blitz. 1500 fires in one small area of the City of London. Superbly recreated with sound and light with a descriptive narrative of the heart being torn from the capital.

Another comedy moment illustrating the spirit of the times in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, with a Sergeant trying to drill a disparate squad of hopeless civilians newly in uniform, carrying garden tools in place of arms. "…if Hitler could see you now - my God he would be a worried man…" Followed by a psuedo Flanagan and Allen with "Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler, if you think old England's done…". Who's kidding who?

And so the show went on. With tribute stories of all the Services and the too-many sacrifices. Too much to recall here, but odd moments cannot be left unmentioned. The sudden shocking "PUT THAT LIGHT OUT!" which opened the second half, the long hours and hard work of civilians thrown into five years of unfamiliar occupations, the brief but frenetic times of relaxation snatched from the endless work and worries. Meanwhile far away the ongoing jungle warfare while broadcast reports of Germany's surrender leave the Far Eastern armies feeling forgotten and far from the home celebrations as recorded in 'A Soldier's Letter Home'. The sadness of the song to them, "…I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you."

The submariner's horror of being under depth charge attack, blind in a possible imploding metal tomb deep under water. The 'ping' of sonar increasing in tempo remorselessly, the thrash of propellers, the shattering explosions. Three men and a single light on stage conveyed the terror.

A reading from one of the troops who discovered and went into Belsen. 24th April 1945. It would not be right to try to report on this page the recollections and eye witness accounts which brought tears to many in the audience. "The whole thing was a nightmare". That statement, taken from the account, cannot do justice to the event. It is all on the video. Finally, Hitler's suicide on 30th April 1945 and Germany's surrender on 8th May brought the war in Europe to an end. An 'all Services' tableau, the Last Post sounds, for minutes the Petals of Remembrance fall in a totally silent hall, a tribute is read to the men of Wickhambrook who fell in that war - "They shall not grow old…" read by a respected wartime Serviceman.

The show closed with the whole cast leading a reprise of some of the wartime songs which carried the population through, "We'll meet again…" then rousing singing ('Land of Hope and Glory'), with the flag-waving and spontaneously standing and cheering audience. The curtains close and inevitably open again, but not for the usual curtain-call. The music swells and the audience take over with a crescendo chorus of Land of Hope and Glory. And so Wickhambrook's VE Day Celebration is well and truly finished - with not a dry eye in the house.

Put together and staged by a few enthusiasts in very short time, supported by the Players, the Parish Council and the MSC this Celebration has been described as possibly the best show ever staged in Wickhambrook. The video captures the images and sounds and some of the atmosphere, but cannot do full justice to the moving scenes and professional evocation achieved by the actors and producers. Copies of the 2-hour video are available on VHS only, cost £5, telephone 01440 820520.

Will there be another celebration for the 70th anniversary in 2015? Will the uniforms be dusted off again, scenes refreshed and re-enacted and those achingly nostalgic songs revived for a future audience? Who knows - the thinking at present is 'probably not' - but there is a strong nostalgia for the spirit of those days when war-torn Britain faced down a common enemy. When, for more than 5 years, an oppressed Europe heard Britain's sometimes desperate, but always defiant: 'dih-dih-dih dah'.