Poppies for England

This one week's holiday was all that most of the audience could get, they were free for one week from food queues, housework and even, for many hours a day, the care of their children. It was a week of absolute rest, but everybody in the audience knew that outside the camp lay the hard, difficult world of 1946.

The Corners and the Binns are show business families on the verge of dire straits due to lack of jobs in the postwar economy. But crisis is averted when they snag a summer gig performing a variety show at a holiday camp. It's not all smooth sailing, however. The Corners' daughter Dulcie is attractive and talented, but a bit of a diva, and when she sets her sights on the show's pianist and composer, Tom Pollard, gets not a flicker of response, then discovers that his focus is on Nella Binns, a dancer with real talent but no ability to "put herself over", danger signs flash. The resulting drama, with a lush array of details about the perils of mounting a stage show,...