Brassed Off

 Review by Paul Towers, 7/7/25

Brassed Off by Paul Allen, based on the screenplay by Mark Herman

Directed by Mary Jones

Produced by The Little Theatre

At The Little Theatre til Saturday 12th July 2025

When I was a teenager it was deemed advantageous for me to learn some sort of musical instrument. I couldn’t sing so finding something for me to play was felt more easily achieved. So it was that I was bought a cornet and enrolled in the school brass band. For the next five years I spent many after school sessions crammed in a dingy room puffing away as we waded through numerous brass band standards. Sadly once I left school the only thing I took with me was the ability to read music. It hasn’t been a lot of use.

Settling in my seat at The Little Theatre took me back to those sweaty practice sessions as the superb Enderby Senior Band were revealed on stage to play their part in Brassed Off.

Brassed Off is ‘the other miners’ strike’ show. Billy Elliot being the other better known one.

In 1994, with echoes of the 1984 miners’ strike still ringing in their ears, miners were seeing the shadow of pit closures looming ever closer. In the fictional Grimley the coal pit is the backbone of the local community and the Grimley Colliery Band is the pride of the colliery despite not winning any competitions for years.

Gloria (Nikki Favell) is sent back to her home town by the management to assess the profitability of the mine. Allegedly. Turning up at band practice she bumps into an old flame, Andy (Robin McFarland) and they rekindle their romance until Andy works out that she is working for ‘the other side’.

Danny (Adam Jones), the band leader, struggles to keep the band’s spirits up as he battles emphysema, the result of years of working down the pit. His son Phil (Chris Brookes), when not at the coalface moonlights as a children’s clown in an attempt to feed his wife, Sandra (Chloe Thorpe) and their children. One of which, 8 year old Shane (Samuel Smith on Press Night) acts as a sort of narrator filling the audience in on context when needed and provides many of the laughs with his assured performance.

A large main cast and a huge ensemble, as well as the band themselves, means this is a full-bodied production and will leave you tumbling out into the night humming tunes you had no idea were in your head.

Pics: Jonathan Pryke

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