THEY’LL be riding along on the crest of a wave again next week.

The boys and girls are back to present the Oxford Gang Show, the annual feast of song, music and dance by members of the Scout and Guide movements.

This picture, taken in 1964, shows members of the cast taking part in a rehearsal a few weeks before the show opened at the Oxford Playhouse.

That year, the show, produced by Norman Lankford, Scoutmaster of the 9th Oxford, claimed a ‘first’ – a flying Scoutmaster.

Fred Hann, Rover Scout leader of the 4th Oxford troop, played Peter Pan in one of the sketches and flew 10ft to 12ft across the stage on wires.

Although the rest of the cast had been rehearsing weekly, he could not try his high-flying routine until the dress rehearsal.

Mr Hann, who had appeared in all 11 Gang Shows to date, said before his one and only practice: “I am a bit dubious about this one.”

The 1964 show had a cast of 95 Scouts from 25 Oxford troops, and included Cubs for the first time. Two sets of 40 Cubs were selected as they could only appear every other night.

The Oxford Gang Show has its roots in Maudlin Madness, a light-hearted show organised by Ralph Symonds, a master at Magdalen College School, in the late 1940s.

He became Scoutmaster of the 40th Oxford (Magdalen College School) Sea Scout troop and suggested that the local Scout Association put on a district show involving Scouts and Scouters.

We’ll Live Forever, a musical play, ran for four performances at the Clarendon Press Institute in Walton Street in the spring of 1950. About 1,000 people saw the production.

A show called Come In was staged in 1952, followed by Here Again in 1953. Then the title was changed to Lucky Dip, a name that was to stay for the next six years.

The show’s reputation and the demand for tickets grew so fast that the Clarendon Press Institute was booked for two weeks and eight performances.

In 1957, the Golden Jubilee year of Scouting, the show was switched to a professional stage – the Oxford Playhouse.

Ralph Reader, who had started the Gang Show tradition in the 1930s, attended the final performance that year and was full of praise for the young entertainers.

The Oxford Mail reported: “Mr Reader thanked the boys and said it was the best provincial show and well worth travelling 100 miles to see.

“He and two of the boys from the London Gang Show admitted some of the numbers were better than in London.”

The title, Gang Show, was adopted in 1961. Despite some ups and downs and changes of venue – it has also been staged at the New Theatre, St Edward’s School and Radley College – the show continues to flourish, having celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2011.

This year’s show opens at Radley College Theatre next Monday and continues until Saturday, February 22.

Any names for the Scouts in the picture above? Write and let me know.