The Mayor of Winchester, Councillor Eileen Berry and Master of Ceremonies, Richard Chisnell, led a talented company and the large audience in a medley of music hall favourites at the close of a hugely entertaining concert at Winchester’s Theatre Royal.

The Old Time Music Hall, staged as a fundraising event for the mayor’s charities – raising an estimated £2,000 – was played out in the best traditions of variety theatre, the genial Mr Chisnell setting the mood from his flamboyant opening entrance to the rip-roaring grand finale.

The subtle variation of theme and pace had the enthusiastic audience laughing and singing with gusto for around three hours.

The Winchester Musicals and Opera Society opened the evening with the colourful and uplifting Ziegfield Follies number Row, Row, Row and added additional sparkle to the first half with a lively tap routine.

There were solo performances from Carole Miles-Kingston, Ronni Davis and Deborah Cleary that ranged from comedy songs to light opera, an all-too-brief appearance by the barber shop harmony group Designer Stubble and a moving medley of First World War numbers from the Colden Common Music and Drama Group.

Producer Sylvia Mould enhanced the musical mix with the enthusiastic presentation of Putting on the Ritz by the Blue Apple Theatre dancers, a menacing and highly amusing melodrama from a group called The Geriactors and a clever routine performed by jugglers Dan Newman-Farr and Juliana Teichert.

Cllr Berry had promised fun, colour and spectacle and this came in good measure when the can can dancers from the Florian School of Dance burst onto the stage to open the second half.

Solos from Frank Allen and Penny Bullough, a Flanagan and Allen medley and a set by the Winchester Uke Jam continued the strong musical theme while melodramas from The Worthy Players and Blue Apple Theatre and the trickery and tom-foolery of Magic Dan Newman-Farr carried the programme to its finale.

John Smith