HANK & SMUDGER’S STORIES

BEDERN HALL, YORK, 11th November 2026, 7.30pm

Experience the breath-taking real-life stories of two Yorkshire Normandy Veterans.

“We’re in the water, wading to the shore, and we’re literally brushing against what looks like logs, and they’re just bodies rolling in the surf, people that we know, eighteen, nineteen, twenty year olds, they’re people that we know!”

Bomb Happy VE DAY 80 Doublebill: Hank & Smudger’s Stories

“I had to try to very carefully wake him up, but very carefully you know. You see, he’d be shaking,

And for a moment when he woke he’d still be back there –in the war.”

Verbatim Theatre at it’s best” ★★★★★ – Broadway Baby

Tickets available here

Images: Hank Haydock, Still from Film (see below) Smudger Smith, Live Performance (see below)

HANK’S STORY: In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock; A Walk in the Park. A short site specific film telling the story of Coldstream Guardsman, Dennis “Hank” Haydock. From his time in a tank training camp in Duncombe Park, North Yorkshire to VE Day, this unique theatre experience, inspired by his written memoirs, interweaves verbatim monologues to bring Hank’s powerful first-hand experiences vividly to life in the actual place where he was stationed just prior to the D-Day Landings.

Sleep/Re-Live/ Wake/ Repeat : Smudger’s Story. A live spoken word with song curation performed by playwright Helena Fox and actor-vocalist Natasha Jones, interweaving the first hand D-Day testimonies of infantryman Ken “Smudger” Smith with haunting acapella vocals and set against a backdrop of still image photographs of the Middle East taken by Smudger during WW2.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK “Bomb Happy: Smudger’s Story is a truly personal story, beautiful and simply told. The audience hung on to every word. This is reliving history at ground level. All in all, we found it an extraordinary and powerful piece of theatre. Don’t miss it.”

“Helena Fox has crafted two heartfelt and verbatim accounts of WWII in this double-bill, allowing the words to conjure the images themselves while Natasha Jones’ stunning singing underlines the narrative. A very effective and moving combination. Lest We Forget. After this, you won’t.

REVIEWS FOR PREVIOUS WORK:

“A powerful sense of immediacy & involvement” ★★★★★ – Broadway Baby

“A must -see play that will stay with you forever” ★★★★★ – World at War

” Verbatim Theatre at it’s best” ★★★★ – Edfringe Review

“An almost unique piece that transcends theatre” ★★★★ – The Wee Review