Doctor's notes on village life

Time travelling TV star Colin Baker has penned a children's musical celebrating life in their former pit village.
Colin, the sixth Doctor Who, has teamed up with composer pal George Hastings, to create a production about Boldon Colliery.It will raise the curtain on a £1.2million community theatre, built as part of the new Boldon School, and will be performed by more than 120 children.The school's head of music, Andrew Cresswell, said: "It would be difficult to find a musical production as ambitions as this one. It will be based on events, drawn from the community, both past and present."We have this new theatre, this is a step and we wanted to celebrate it at the heart of Boldon and involve the wider community."Stories have been drawn from history as well as tales from local events including Civil War clashes between rival militias from Sunderland and Newcastle, Venerable Bede's links with St Nicholas Church and the 1960 craze for bingo at the Majestic in North Road.Mr Cresswell said: "This will be very much a professional production and it will be the first major theatrical show at the theatre."George Hastings, a part-time teacher at Boldon, has linked up with his daughter Jennifer, who works for Daisy Chain Productions, to produce the musical, working title Big Up Boldon.Jennifer said: "This is part of an initiative to revive interest in drama and theatre production and has developed on to this particular project which will benefit eight schools from the area."Children from neighbouring primary schools are among the giant cast lined up for the show on July 5 to 7. Members of the Northern Sinfonia will also provide musical backing.Mr Cresswell said: "It obviously raises the ante and gives them the opportunity to work with older children, professional dancers, choreographers and musicians. "It takes me back to being a musical director to see that standard available and for the kids to have that experience is something they will remember
for the rest of their lives."Colin Baker has visited the school and worked with Mr Hastings on a number of projects.The £17.5million Boldon School, designed by Waring and Netts, opened in November and the firm is sponsoring the show and summer musical workshops.Waring and Netts's education director, Rob Charlton, said: "We have become very attached to the community as well as being one of the main supporters of their bid to become a specialist performing arts college, so we thought that supporting this programme was an opportunity too good to miss."Headteacher Colin Whitfield said that the school hoped to bring in theatregoers from across the North East.He added: "The new school has made a tremendous difference to staff and pupils alike. "We can see the children enjoying the extra meeting spaces and they certainly have more respect for their new surroundings."