IN the 70th anniversary year of VE Day, York Musical Theatre Company are reviving their wartime show, When The Lights Go On Again, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from Wednesday to Saturday.

First performed at the Grand Opera House for one night only and quickly brought back by popular demand at York Theatre Royal in 2009, Paul Laidlaw's humorous, light-hearted show looks back to the songs and sketches that lightened the dark days of the Second World War and would have kept spirits up in the music halls of the day.

Among the highlights will be an American section complete with the Andrews Sisters, a wartime pantomime sketch, Max Miller comedy and nostalgic singalong songs such as There’ll Always Be An England, Lili Marlene and We’ll Meet Again. York schoolchildren will be involved too, performing school songs from the era, complete with evacuation packs.

Mick Liversidge was involved in the previous shows and will be doing his Max Miller and Robb (CORRECT) Wilton routines again. "Paul is using the same format as before; the only change from last time is in the personnel," he says. "When we did it originally for only one night, we immediately realised it could have more longevity. People were asking, 'when are you doing it again?', and we had to say we weren't, but we soon revived it, and it's good to be doing it again, in the year when we have the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo as well as VE Day's anniversary."

Mick's father fought in the Second World War, starting off in the Durham Light Infantry, for whom he had signed up before war broke out, and then serving in the Royal Artillery. "I know he was in Belgium and France but he didn't want to talk about it," he recalls. "As a boy, I used to ask him if he ever had to shoot anyone and he would never say. Life was different after the war; everything changed and they had to adjust to civilian life again, when he worked for Dale Electrics."

When The Lights Go On Again re-creates the shows of wartime, but for Mick it also evokes the shows of his childhood. "I love these shows because I grew up watching Morecambe and Wise and we used to go on holiday at Scarborough, where we always saw the summer shows at the Futurist," he says. "Hopefully we're now bringing variety back to York!"

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances on Wednesday to Friday and the 2.30pm Saturday matinee are on sale at yorkmusicaltheatrecompany.org.uk or on 01904 623568.