It was a case of gamekeeper turned poacher for the Romford Recorder's Barry Kirk when he sat down to watch a performance he penned himself.

The deputy editor and theatre critic usually sits in the auditorium of the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch to review plays for the Archant newspaper, but was asked to write a 35-minute script as part of the theatre's 50th Anniversary Gala Night.

Featuring long-serving Coronation Street star Peter Baldwin, who played Derek Wilton, the performance charted the history of the theatre.

Barry said: "At first I thought the artistic director, Bob Carlton, was asking for extra publicity for the gala.

"But pointing to the event in the theatre's programme a mere three weeks away from the night, he dropped the bombshell and asked if I would write it."

The special gala musical evening featured the London Pops Orchestra playing hits from the shows put on by the theatre over the past 50 years, with the stars past and present narrating the story between the music.

But far from just writing the script, Barry was faced with undertaking a mountain of research as he found there was no actual history written down.

Barry said: "Thirty-five minutes did not sound a lot at first, but took the full three weeks to extract from people like Bernard Cribbins and Glenda Jackson, as well as former theatre directors, administrators and lots of councillors involved in setting the Queen's up 50 years ago.

"It was quite an experience sitting in the auditorium watching the actors and thinking I wrote that, but the one moment I will never forget was when Peter Baldwin asked if I would mind if he altered a word in my script to make it easier for him to say. Would I actually mind?

"It was a gigantic learning curve, but one that worked and was brilliant fun do."

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