GALES of laughter weren’t enough for Sutton’s Green Hut Theatre Company when it staged the TV sitcom Hi-De-Hi this month.

Members urged the audience to dig deep to raise money for people devastated by the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean.

The collection at the end of each of the two performances – carried out by one of the holiday camp’s Yellowcoats – raised a total of £200.

The collection at Sutton Village Hall came about due to unfortunate coincidence between real life and the script.

Hi-De-Hi follows the fortunes of the quirky entertainment staff on a British holiday camp in the late 1950s.

In the story owner Joe Maplin decides to open a new camp on the island of San Martin – renaming it San Maplin -- only to see the camp destroyed by a hurricane.

A Green Hut spokesman said: “The disaster hit when it was too late to change the script, so the least we could do was acknowledge what had happened in real life by raising some money to help.”

Members are keen that the money goes directly to people living on the affected Caribbean islands, and are likely to give the money to the Red Cross.