WHEN the Canterbury Players present Derek Benfield’s comedy First Things First at Davyhulme Wesley Methodist Church from November 12-15, it will be their 65th season.

Gordon Wells, who has helped with stage management for 57 years will step down.

Now the society’s president, Gordon, 75, is well versed in its history.

In 1949, the P.T.A. at Canterbury Road Primary School, encouraged by the headmaster, Edgar Shaw, presented Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy.

It went down a storm and the Canterbury Players was born.

They stayed there until 2005 before moving to the Davyhulme church.

In 1953, Coronation year, people paid 2s 6d to see their two one act plays, among others, in the Urmston District Council Festival of Music and Drama held at the Good Companions Hall

The local paper wrote: “The Canterbury Players cavorted about the stage from one improbable situation to the next.”

Since then they have had improbable situations themselves.

Gordon said: “Once, a settee on which the actors were sitting, collapsed.

"They carried on regardless and during the interval, we bagged someone’s settee and used it for the second half.

“On another occasion, when flash powder was ignited for a mock fire, it melted a thespian’s tights!”

Gordon believes the most successful production was The Militants, a play about Suffragettes, staged in the mid 1970s.

The seven day production was a sell-out.

Another was Hobson’s Choice in the late 1980s.

Gordon avoided damaging the school stage by extending the stage and putting the trap door there.

When he joined in 1956, Gordon helped to build a set for Beside the Seaside. Its success prevented the players from closing due to dire financial problems.

He said: “We have some new younger members who will, hopefully, keep us going for another 65 years.”