image: Anselm Heinrich and Toby Jones

“Some of you may remember an approach to the STR last year by Rebecca Fairbank, producer at Wonderhood Studios, who was looking for a theatre historian with expertise in theatre during the Second World War, and ENSA in particular, for their upcoming second series of “My Grandparents’ War”. I did the honours, advised them on some historical details and joined the production team for filming in Northern France. The episode features Toby Jones, whose grandmother Dorky performed with ENSA in May 1940 across a number of cities in Northern France, and just ahead of the German invasion.

Anyway, for anyone interested this is the episode: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-grandparents-war/on-demand/71821-004 and it’s still available on All4. In case you don’t want to watch the full episode “my” bit starts at 17.30mins.