During the interval six lucky children were taken to meet Mike and Bernie in their dressing room, they were Mary Gillespie (12) of Master street, Kathleen Hargreaves (13) of Fleetwood Road, Linda Parry (12) of Haydock street, Jim Lindsay (12) of Hurstwood Avenue, Alan Ferguson (12) of Stroyan Street and June Davis (13) of Gordon Street.
200 children of employees of the Prestige Company, Burnley were taken by coach to see Mike and Bernie Winters in the pantomime "Babes In The Wood" at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. The Burnley Express went along to capture the laughter and excitement, both on stage and behind the scenes. The whole outing was organised by the Sports and Social Committee and was paid for by the management and directors. On the trip to Manchester the children were given sweets and chocolates, and on the return journey they were provided with a snack tea each and a carton of orange juice. During the interval, ice creams were handed round and to complete the marvellous day out every boy and girl was given a Churchill crown.
The management of the Palace Theatre cooperated wonderfully, by allowing several of the children back stage to meet the stars of the show, Mike and Bernie Winters, who welcomed their guests in their dressing room and some of the children were lucky enough to meet The Fairy and to watch the back stage activity during the changing of the scene. Mike and Bernie played their part to the full by including jokes about Burnley from the stage, which more than delighted their young visitors.
Besides Mike and Bernie as the two robbers, the very popular John Hanson as Robin Hood and his singing throughout makes this one of the most entertaining panto's of recent years and Alan Curtis as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the villain of the panto, can certainly ensure all the children in the audience hated him, he only has to set foot on the stage for a crescendo of booing to drown the cheers, as a professional villain, Alan enjoys it all. Delightful Doreen Kay who started dancing when she was only seven, is a delightful Maid Marian and has been as equally successful in several summer presentations of the world famous "Fol-de-Rols".