A YOUNG Mollie Sugden, Keighley’s future star of television comedy, sits second from the right as 'recitalist' with The Good Companions concert party in 1942.

Its other members, from left to right, were Frank Smith, tenor; Hylda Saville-Smith, soprano; Arthur Day, baritone and Walter Greenwood, pianist.

They had to get JB Priestley’s permission to use their title, giving 500 shows during a three-year period, many under the auspices of Northern Command at Catterick, and at an RAF station at Kirkburton. Sometimes, after being entertained in officers’ messes, they would arrive back in Keighley as late as 3am – and Mollie Sugden had to be up early to start work at the Steeton Royal Ordnance Factory!

Another wartime concert party was a troupe formed from members of the Keighley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, invited by a military entertainments officer at Whitby to “give a variety concert for the troops at the Spa Theatre” in 1940. Their expenses included “coffee at Malton”, “wigs from Hombergs” and “petrol for two cars”. Thereafter a censored local press chronicled their expeditions to “an East Coast town” and “stations far removed from Keighley”.