Memories of a bygone era when Brent Station was a vital link with the wider world will be recreated when South Brent Amateur Dramatic Society (SBADS) presents 'The Railway Children', adapted from E. Nesbit’s enduringly popular book by Dave Simpson and directed by Greg Wall and John Giles in South Brent Village Hall at 7.30pm, with a matinee on Saturday 21st at 2.30pm.

• The production will be given a local flavour by setting it in and around South Brent station in 1910. The audience will be invited to use their imagination to identify Three Chimneys Cottage, the embankment where the children wave to the ‘old gentleman’ and the tunnel where disaster is narrowly averted. (The play holds a special place in the heart of director Greg Wall, whose grandfather worked for the Great Western Railway in Devon and Cornwall at the time it is set, while his father was a porter at Brent station in the 1940s.) SBADS are drawing on a fantastic pool of both seasoned actors and enthusiastic young talent (with 16 young people taking part in the production, including the three ‘railway children’ themselves – Roberta, Peter and Phyllis, played by Sarah Lannin, Jamie Medd and Lily Green). SBADS’ stalwart Robin Lee takes the central part of Perks, the station porter, who also acts as narrator, while Society Chairman Nat Cook plays Mother. Other adult roles are taken by Kim Kidney, Peter Brown, John Gower, Mike Sermon and Guy Pannell. Incidental music for the production has been specially composed by Paul Pennicotte-Henri.

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  Tickets, priced £8 for adults and £5 for children, go on sale on Monday 9 November, between 10am and 12.30pm at the Mare and Foal charity shop in the village, or call the box office on 07812 414916 from that date.