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Singing and Dancing in The Park

Published Wednesday 6th July 2005

The modern day Combined Services Entertainment show stages a 1940's ENSA (Entertainment National Service, Association, or as it was fondly remembered, Every Night Something Awful!) performance at living museum in London's St James's Park

The modern day Combined Services Entertainment show girls pose alongside their WWII ENSA (Entertainment National Service, Association, or as it was fondly remembered, Every Night Something Awful!) predecessors after a performance at living museum in London's St James's Park. They are (LtoR) Maisie Pather (80), Claire Millin, Marian Konyot (80), Rachel Master, Claudia Boss (83), Natalie Carson, Peggy Marshall (83) and Alexandra Craig

The audience show their appreciation as the modern day Combined Services Entertainment show stages a 1940's ENSA (Entertainment National Service, Association, or as it was fondly remembered, Every Night Something Awful!) performance at living museum in London's St James's Park

At the VE/VJ Day commemorations in St James’s Park some of the excitement and thrills of Second World War entertainment shows came back to the veterans as they watched young, modern dancers and singers perform old favourites like Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

In a short half-hour show, dancers and singers from Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) took the audience of mainly veterans through an emotional roller-coaster ride of memories from 1939 to 1945. From Chamberlain announcing the country was at war, the music and dance began, finally culminating in two Vera Lynn numbers, ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

Natalie Carson, from Watford, one of the dancers in the commemorative show, has been a professional dancer for eight years and for five of those she’s done many CSE productions all around the world.

"We go out to destinations like Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Falklands," says Natalie. "We are there for four days, sometimes a week, meeting people and then we put on a big show for them to come and have a good time."

She started dancing when she was three until she was sixteen when she went to dance school to become a professional dancer.

Watching Natalie and the other dancers were veteran ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association) performers. ENSA evolved into CSE, (Combined Services Entertainment), an independent agency, backed and funded by the MOD who put on shows around the world for all three services.

Irissa Cooper is a former ENSA performer. Singer and dancer Irissa had an amazing career that spanned the war, working across Britain and Italy.

"I did my first ENSA show in 1941 as a dancer," she says. "I went to the Orkney Islands with my first solo act and joined a band up there around 1941. We did the whole of Scotland up and down. Following that I was in the West End with Strike a New Note which was a war time hit show."

It was there she joined the US version of the shows as one of their girls had taken ill and she was asked to fill the gap.

"That show was called Words and Music," she explains. "I went from there to another USO show called Bandwagon with 25 professional musicians who had been called up in the Army and there were two other girls on the bill and a comedian.

"We did all the shows down where the American three million troops were around Devon and Cornwall. I did that for eight months until the invasion. Then I went to Italy with another show called Many Happy Returns."

While she was with Bandwagon, a Glenn Miller style orchestra, the famous Jimmy Cagney joined the show.

"He was flown over, very secretly, one night," said Irissa. "We were down in Devon somewhere and he had seen the show. He asked me if I could do a routine with him and I was over the moon."

They were to do the routine Cagney had done with his sister in Yankee Doodle Dandy but Irissa had never seen the show and the film had just started playing in the West End.

"All the heads came in and wanted to take him around and there was never any time so I never did the routine with him. But he was with the show for a fortnight."

Today, none of the dancers or other performers works full-time for the CSE. They are professionals doing whatever work they can from fashion shows to pop musicals and in between they do the CSE shows.

For Natalie, it’s those shows she really loves.

"The services are one of the best audiences you can ever do a show to," she says. "In the West End people clap but we get cheered. It’s electric sometimes."

Part of that electricity is the interaction with an enthusiastic crowd.

"As soon as the show is done we go out and talk to the soldiers and have photos taken with them. They are away from their wives and girlfriends and they like to have a new friendly face to chat to."

If the lads are lucky they can dance with the dancers or heckle the brilliant comedians that are also part of most CSE shows.

"It’s a way of getting them involved," says Natalie. "It’s a hard time for them and they really appreciate it when you go out there."

During the war getting to some of the destinations took days in extremely difficult and uncomfortable conditions. Nowadays, it still takes hours but it is much more comfortable as Natalie explains,

"Going to Afghanistan or the Falklands is quite a trip but getting out there is very well organised."

Once they are out there it’s all go with no time to rehearse.

"We have a little run through but we all pretty much know what we are doing," says Natalie. "We are all based in London and are all professionals."

Before the trip the troop meets up at a studio in the city and goes through their routines for a couple of days, and then it’s on the plane and away.

Usually, the CSE shows are tailored to the audiences which means modern dance and music but today’s commemorative show was tailored to be just like an ENSA show from the war.

"It was memories for everyone," says Natalie. "Just like memory lane, it’s great."

Related articles:

Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two

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