Shropshire-born showbiz veteran Peter Vaughan has added his support to a county amateur dramatic group which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Ben Bentley reports.

Ernest Jones worked in the flower shop. But the popular Wem florist would blossom in other areas of life too.

“He was the most professional dame I have ever seen,” says Margaret Simmons, secretary of Wem Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society.

“With the flick of his skirts, his eyes would twinkle and light up the stage. I can see him now with a long string of sausages specially made by the local butcher, doing his little skipping routine.”

Thespian Ernest, one of the founding members of the society, might be dead now but such memories will never be erased.

This year the society celebrates its 90th anniversary, having performed more than 1,000 shows. Formed in 1919, its first production the following year was a version of The Geisha. Since then the society has never had a year when it didn’t put on at least one show, making the group what is believed to be the longest continuing ‘am dram’ group in Shropshire.

At her home in Wem, Margaret, 73, trawls through hundreds of photographs, artefacts and press cuttings that chart the group’s colourful history, and those memories come flooding back like they happened only yesterday.

There are appearances in the Shropshire Drama Festival from 1938 and successes in the British Drama League, peaking in the 1990s with a place in the All-England semi-finals.

With a prodigious roll call of members, it somehow seems that everyone in Wem was a member of the am dram society at one point, singing and acting out the likes of Oklahoma and My Fair Lady.

And no doubt the group’s activity inspired the career path of Wem-born film and TV actor Peter Vaughan, best known for his role as Grouty in the classic comedy Porridge.

“Peter’s aunt, Irene Ohm, founded the society in 1919 in her living room,” explains Margaret. “Then they bought an old wartime hut on the High Street where they rehearsed, and performed at the Town Hall. Peter was born in Wem and his father was Max Ohm who was the headmaster of Wem Grammar School. It’s nice to think he went on to great things.”

Peter has made a cash donation to the group to help its 90th anniversary celebrations.

Other famous members included Peter Jones, who starred in the TV comedy The Rag Trade.

Another original member and friend of founder Irene was Violet Jones, who died only recently. Everyone knew Violet about town.

“Everybody called her Auntie Vi, because she was like an auntie to everyone,” says Margaret.

“I joined in 1955 at the age of 22. Auntie Vi introduced me to Irene Ohm and in those days, to join you had to be proposed and seconded and accepted by the community.

“Nowadays we drag anyone in,” she jokes. “But I wanted to be part of the community and joining the group gave me that.”

In the face of the slings and arrows of life that have included war, recession and death, am dram in Wem has remained a comforting constant.

It would have been easy to give up or suspend productions during the Second World War. The leading men had gone off to serve on battlefields, but in the best traditions of live drama the show must go on.

“The men had gone to war so we did pantomime with the ladies playing all the parts – women and men,” says Margaret.

“Everybody liked the pantos and queued up to see them so we continued to do them, interspersed with the musicals.”

The group represented – and still represents – much more than am dram and singing. It was a part of the community and Margaret’s records show that in many productions whole families performed.

Says Margaret: “The tradition remains today. At this moment we can list total commitment by family groups, with mother helping with props and costumes, father doing lighting and building sets, sons and daughters on stage, and with grandfather as chairman and general handyman.”

Friendships have been made, romances have flourished and marriages cemented in am dram heaven.

Babies have been born with the line “break a leg” ringing in their ears.

If ever you wanted to see life in Wem, you joined the am dram set.

So you can understand why its members are so passionate about the group and why it remains a flourishing one, with 50 senior members and as many juniors from its two youth groups waiting in the wings. In fact, the junior section even has a waiting list of youngsters eager to join.

Margaret is nothing if not passionate about what the society represents. Apart from the scrapbooks and artefacts, her home is a veritable shrine to the cause.

The walls of her upstairs landing are covered in pictures of bygone productions. Nipping to the loo is like a trip down memory lane, so to speak.

“People go to the lavatory and they are gone 30 minutes,” says Margaret. “They come back down and say ‘I’ve found myself’.”

She means on one of the photographs, of course, but you can tell Margaret is an old ham – she delivers her lines with perfect timing.

Now operating out of its own building called the Stage Door that used to be a church, the future of the group seems assured.

Margaret picks up a yellowing press cutting from the group’s 50th anniversary in 1969. In the article Irene Ohm says: “I would like to see the society go on and prosper for another 50 years and it will do, because we have so many enthusiastic members and so much good talent I do not see how it could fail to go on.”

Her legacy is going from strength to strength. At 90, the group is still breaking a leg in memory of this fine lady from Wem.