The Accrington Pals

published: Wed, 14-Mar-2007   |   updated: Wed, 25-Sep-2024

Ralph in The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan for the Environment Players at the Civil Service Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London. Directed by Mike Watkins. 23, 24, 25 November 1988.

The first play I did for the Environment Players and I have no recollection of it at all. I can't even remember how I came to audition for it.

The play itself is about a particular event in the first World War when the Mayor of Accrington started a drive to produce a battalion of Accrington men to send to the front. He managed beautifully and the Pals (as the battalion became known) was decimated, mown down on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The play is set in Accrington and at the front in France.

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