Well now, I shouldn't moan because I obviously bring every bit of this upon myself. But latest hiccup is to do with the silent soldiers. Silent but vitally important. We've been rather blighted by terrible bad luck with regard to these three.

I recruited three, initially as a bit of a nice to have, it must be said. I thought it would look all very organised and official and menacing and important if we had a few of them marching about a bit. Scene setting and that. Given that the play is set the morning after the "mother of all battles" an'all.

But I've become fond of them over the past eight to ten weeks. Brilliant Heather doubles as our military consultant. Jess is the foxiest soldier I've ever seen but impeccably professional with it. The third has proved trickier. Our first post holder had to pull out for enormously valid reasons and procured not just one but two replacements. Plan was for them to turn about with the nights which made my heart selfishly sing as I thought of swelling ticket sales. But poor 3a has had to pull out for horrible health reasons, leaving 3b womanfully (already having been coerced from prompting into actually appearing) committing to do most nights but she can't do the Friday. So I am 3a less currently.

Anyone fancy a brief (but vital) stage appearance on Friday 21st August?? There are only a couple of rehearsals left that you could physically come to. It's not a vast time commitment!! I thought briefly about urging my father to take the part. But the other problem is ideally we want to re-use the same costume. So if you're a girl of slender 10 / 12 means, you'll be put first in the queue...