• PETER Hill is looking forward to playing the Sergeant of Police for the sixth time in his career in Southampton Operatic Society’s upcoming production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.

And as always he’s planning to make quite an entrance!

The Sergeant of Police is a classic comedy role that requires a confident bass voice to carry it off. Peter’s natural comic timing and deep, rich vocals make him the perfect choice for the part, which he has been asked to play for different societies including SOS, Eastleigh Operatic Society and Waterside Operatic Society.

When SOS performed the show in 1979, Peter famously rode onto the Guildhall stage on an 1865 bike that was on loan from Beaulieu Motor Museum.

This time round his vehicle of choice is a child’s scooter.

“Back in 1979 my wife Liz was heavily pregnant with our second child,’ Peter remembers. “She had to give that production a miss, though we usually try and do the shows together because we both love G&S.

“We first met when we were having singing lessons with the same teacher. Now we’ve been married nearly 40 years and have two grandchildren, but we haven’t lost any of our enthusiasm for performing.”

The enthusiastic Sergeant Peter – and Matron Liz – will be appearing at the Nuffield Theatre from Tuesday to Saturday.

Tickets: 023 8067 1771 or visit nuffieldtheatre.co.uk

  • IN medieval Scotland, Macbeth, returning from a successful battle, meets three witches who make a prophecy about the future heir to the throne.

Prompted by his wife, Macbeth plots murder in order to secure his own future and fulfil the prophecy of his own ascension to the throne.

The ‘Scottish play’, is presented by Titchfield Festival Theatre at The Great Barn from Wednesday until Saturday July 5.

See titchfieldfestivaltheatre.com or call 01329 556156.

  • BARTON Peveril students will be staging a production of Cabaret in the college’s Rose Theatre from Tuesday to Saturday.

Set in 1930s Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, Barton Peveril’s interpretation of the hit musical will be a full scale show in an intimate setting.

The cast comprises students from across the college, not just those studying performing arts subjects.

Tickets can be booked online via bartonpeveril.ac.uk

  • WHAT do you do when you’ve fallen in love with the heir-apparent but he’s being pursued by a mad banshee who wants your guts for garters?

Or when you are the heir-apparent and you’ve fallen in love with a beautiful but thankfully common ‘airhead’? Or when the beautiful airhead who’s promised to you has fallen in love with the heir-apparent?Just exactly how do you chop your own head off?

Would you swap love for burial alive?

And what would you give for a tantalising glimpse of left shoulder-blade?

All these questions and more are answered when HumDrum return to The Spring in Havant with Gilbert & Sullivan’s acknowledged masterpiece The Mikado.

Box office: 023 9247 2700 or thespring.co.uk