Anyone in their 50s remember this from primary school??

[ICanSeeClearlyNowLorraineHasGone]

I’m 58 and I remember putting on a play in primary school all about the wooden horse of Troy.

It had songs - it might have just been a series of songs now I think of it but there could have been spoken parts too.

Im assuming it wasn’t just our school but nobody I’ve ever met seems to remember it.

Only asking because the songs have been known to lodge themselves in my brain as ear worms from time to time 😁

I remember Ramses without doubt. Glad so many of you do too. Complemented the ancient Egypt topic of course 😂

a football one.

and another possibly about romans. I remember the line “ oh how civilised, what do you mean” a comedy I think.

Im 63 and still have some very battered versions of the Singing Together books

I preferred the Captain Beaky album, myself...

The bravest animals in the land are Captain Beaky and his band
That's Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Arthur Owl and Batty Bat
They march through the woodlands singing songs that tell how they have righted wrongs

A graveyard on a summer's night, the spectres dance in sheer delight
And down a moonbeam slides a ginger cat - in plimsolls and a paper hat
'I'm dead!' he cried 'My name was Ben. I had nine lives and I just spent ten'.

Im
a few years younger but I remember my sister doing one about Trojan horses.
I remember loads
one about Romans
salutations, hail, good day and how do you do
sorry that we’ve all turned up right out of the blue
here’s the situation, you’ll no longer be free
occupation is our occupation you see
etc - I know the whole song

one about hot air balloons
tararah bumdiay
expert mongolfier
tararah boomdiay
expert mongolfier and their amazing flying globe!

and rip van winkle for some reason
rip van winkle lived in America
many many years ago
the story is told that he hardly ever worked at all
even when his funds were low

😂

Inch worm was from the film Hans Christian Anderson with Danny Kaye

yes Captain Beaky just brilliant

Zalzabar the Wizard had some good songs.

This has been such a delight. To cap it all, our Deputy Head has just messaged to say I got a shoutout on Cerys Matthews' show today. I can retire happy (if I could afford to go!!!)

We did The Daniel Jazz in secondary school "Daniel was the chief hired man in the land, he stirred up the jazz in the palace band, he whitewashed the cellar he shovelled in the coal and Daniel kept a praying Lord save my soul"

We also had a musical especially written for us called Joshua about the Joshua and Moses and the exodus from Egypt.

Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo!

Did it have a song that went...'some say yes, and some say no - the wooden horse of troy has got to go'?

If so, I think it is the Horse of Wood by Eric Williams. It was mostly songs. I was in it quite a few years later though so it might not be the right one.

Troy Story?
Heroes of Troy?

try this -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zk7t6v4

I'm a bit older than you, but I don't remember this play.
Did you get your user name from something Simon Bates used to do on his radio programme I would imagine about 30 years ago? Because there's a word change if you did! For some reason I've never forgotten this!!

ULYSSES!

Yes he was in one of the songs!!

”Ulysses we’ll build a horse of wood I’ll tell ya. We’re gonna build a horse of wood, a monster horse of wood”

@WonderfulSmith OMG we did that and I LOVED the Rameses song! My sisters and I, and my mum, used to sing it round the house all the time. I actually have a Serious Degree in Classics and whenever anything cropped up relating to Ancient Egypt my brain would start shouting “RAMESES, YEAH!!!”

Another contrived song from Hip Hip horatio

royal navy blues

also

cor blimey admiral Nelson you’re a smashing gent….oy

YES YES YES!!

Oh I'm so pleased! I got the name wrong, it was Eric Withams not Eric Williams. I did it at a summer camp in the early 90s I guess and it was directed by him! Absolutely lovely man.

Oh wow! I grew up thousands of miles away from the UK but at a British curriculum international school and we also had the one about Jonah and the Whale and Nineveh city. Funny how these tubes stick in your head! We also had one about Tuttenkhamun which had a catchy tune:

Now when he was a young man
He never thought he'd see (King Tut)
People stand in line to see the boy king (King Tut)
How'd you get so funky? (Funky Tut)
Did you do the monkey?
Born in Arizona
Moved to Babylonia
King Tut
….

Do kids still do these kinds of musical plays at school? Mine don’t. I remember at primary each class was selected in turn to do a skit or song at assembly and then at the end of term we’d have big shows for each year group with classes joining together to perform a play and sing.

This is bringing back some memories ! We did Noah, Daniel and Jonah and then followed it up with their natural successor, Sweeney Todd.

I was only thinking about these the other day - I'm 53 and I remember we'd get a new shiny song book every term, and learn all the songs which I loved practicing (don't recall ever actually doing a play based on them specifically). Would have been 1979-1983 ish.

The only line I still recall now is "If you were immortal, just like me - a deity". ChatGPT says it's Jupiter's Song from Queen Beryl and the Romans? But there were so many more than that.

We did do a play once about God and Satan (nice topic for some 8 year olds) where I played Lucifer, and I was cast out of heaven - I had some great long sections of dialogue ("[blah blah] And once I come into my own, how seemly shall I mount the throne, as King of Bliss." And another line about "...my toe the world may kiss". When God condemned me to hell I had to slink away, hissing in my worm costume, and the nickname Wormy stuck with me all the way through to secondary school.

And people still wonder why exactly Horrible Histories is popular with adults...

I think my daughter did this at school, approximately 2014. She played the part of a goddess of great beauty and her job was to distract the soldiers. I’ve got some of it on video.