It’s 25 years since Yesterday’s Island, a community drama about life in St Philips Marsh, hit the headlines.

Brian Davies, from Keynsham’s Fry Club, tells Bristol Times how he helped put this amazing show on the road.

It was during the summer of 1980 that an old friend - and fellow ex-Marsh resident - reminded me that the St Philips Marsh Adult School football club was celebrating its Diamond Jubilee.

To mark the occasion I suggested a match between a team of ex-players, of which I was one, and the current side.

In fact so many people came along to a further game that it developed into something of a “Marsh” reunion.

From talk in the bar after the game came a germ of an idea - a book about St Philips Marsh and its people.

 In the event Ted Phillips, Roger Packer, Sid Davies (no relation), and I planned and wrote it together.

Launched amid much media hype in 1983 at yet another “Marsh” reunion, it sold like the proverbial hot cakes and fame, if not fortune, arrived at my doorstep.

That should really have been the end of it.

 But I had a feeling that this unique story would make a great subject for a musical.

So I asked John Scully, then the Fry Club panto writer, to read the book and say whether he could do something with it.

 His answer was in the negative - there was nothing in the book, he said, on which to base a play.

 So I arranged for him to meet several ex-residents who could tell him more about the “Marsh” people and their times.

 John duly came along, listened to the reminisces but didn’t take any notes.

 Coming back the next day he said that if someone could write some factual narrative for him he would produce a script within three months.

 The popular leader of Bedminster Down Boys Club, Steve Long, was persuaded to do the job.

He and John met twice a week at the Fry Club and the script was completed on time, as promised.

 When it was read to some ex residents in March 1984 their reaction mirrored my own.

The script was sensational - at times extremely funny and at others very tragic.

I had already decided that the show was going to be performed, in the main, by people with no previous acting experience.

 A sponsored walk along the Pembrokeshire coast by a friend and I managed to raise £450.00 - enough to put a deposit on Fry Hall and to print some publicity posters.

 I had, however, estimated a budget of £4,000.OO for the show!

Nevertheless, a cast was brought together and rehearsals, scenery building and painting was soon going apace.

 We sold the tickets from my house.

 I had decided that the opening night, in October 1984, was going to be a “Marsh Night” with an audience of ex-residents.

I had some old street party photos blown up, put on heavy-duty board and displayed in the foyer.

 It was wonderful to see people recognising themselves and it made the whole evening an event rather than just a show.

 It worked so well, in fact, that we had difficulty persuading people to leave the foyer and enter the hall.

 By the end of the evening, however, they were so taken with the show that we had difficulty getting them to leave the hall.

Word soon got round and the remaining unsold tickets were snapped up in no time at all.

In fact the demand was so great that the show played once again to sell out audiences at Fry Hall in March 1985 - but this time for two weeks instead of just the one.

Amongst the audience was the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Jack Bosdet, who suggested that the show was so good that it should be performed at the Hippodrome.

Many discussions took place over the next couple of months.

There was not only the cost of taking the show to Bristol but also the awesome task of selling two thousand tickets for each performance - and we had planned six of them!

I was also concerned that the intimate nature of our show would not transfer well to such a vast stage and auditorium.

But then came an ideal opportunity for me to gauge whether this would be the right place for us, or not.

Bedminster Down Boys Club were performing at the Hippodrome and asked if we would like to do a scene from our “Marsh Island” show with them.

My fears, it turned out, had been groundless.

From the first haunting notes of the theme song until the end of the scene, the audience was captivated.

 A decision was made and the Hippodrome booked for a week in April, 1986.

This gave us just a year to raise enough capital, increase the size of our scenery, write and learn new scenes and integrate new members into the cast.

 I estimated that we would need to raise £10,000 to produce a professional show and that, in order to cover our budgeted costs, we would need to sell 75% of the tickets.

 My wife and I opened a box office - it was, once again, at our home - in November, 1985.

 With good coverage about the shows from both the Evening Post and Radio Bristol the first week proved absolute bedlam.

The phone never stopped ringing and it became impossible for us even to sit down for a meal together.

 We had to ask our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren to stay with us in order to take the bookings.

In the end we sold a staggering £25,000 worth of tickets.

In order to gain even more publicity I arranged some photo and film opportunities such as walking round the Marsh, the cast in rehearsal and the support group on sponsored walks.

 We advertised for mothers with young babies (we wanted to use real babies in the show) and the Hippodrome management reluctantly agreed to allow us to use donkeys in a scene about a day trip to Weston.

 This, of course, gave me the heaven sent opportunity to have mothers and babies meet the press outside the theatre and to see the donkeys being auditioned.

I can proudly say that all the babies passed the audition but sadly only two of the donkeys.

The opening show at the Hippodrome was, once again, a “Marsh” night, with ex-residents coming from as far away as Tasmania and America.

It all went unbelievably well with the cast receiving a well-deserved standing ovation.

 The Guardian newspaper described, “Yesterday’s Island” as, “Community theatre at its best.”

 On the Wednesday the Hippodrome manager asked me if we could put on an extra show - a Saturday matinee - for all the people who couldn’t obtain tickets for the weekday ones.

After consulting everyone, I agreed.

 Between the Thursday and Saturday lunch time, the theatre sold over 600 tickets.

 By the end of the run the show had made a staggering profit of £16,000.

 Within days I received a congratulatory letter from the theatre asking if I would take the show back the following year for a two week run.

 After further discussions I agreed to put “Yesterday’s Island” on again for two weeks in May, 1987.

I re - opened the box office and fund-raising started again in earnest.

 By February it was clear that we were on course for another successful run.

 David Harrison, who attended the opening night for the Evening Post, was knocked out by the show.

“Yesterday’s Island,” he said, was the best amateur show he had ever seen - and one of the top five the Hippodrome had ever put on.

The show continued playing to packed houses and receiving standing ovations every night.

The profits of £26,000 were distributed to eight local charities in the Bristol area.

 I, and many of my close associates, will never forget that wonderful experience.