‘The thing about Old Time Music Hall is that you always bring smiles to people’s faces. It’s for people aged five to 105.” So says Barbara Denton, who has been staging, and performing in such shows in and around Oxford since 1986.

“If my mother were alive today, she would say that I was born showing off,” Barbara added.

“When I was seven or eight years old I played the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland — my most important line was to shout ‘pig’. Everybody laughed, and the sound of laughter when you’re that age is wonderful. So I went on enjoying anything that came my way stage-wise.

“I first got interested in music hall through watching my mother doing Joyce Grenfell; she was very good at it. I used to enjoy The Good Old Days when it was broadcast from the Leeds City Varieties, and I was very impressed by male impersonators like Vesta Tilley: the first thing I performed as an adult was Following in Father’s Footsteps, which came from Vesta Tilley’s act — it involved impersonating a drunk young lad. I’ve also always been known for singing saucy numbers like Has Anybody Seen my Tiddler.”

After a gap of five years, Barbara is staging a new Old Time Music Hall show at the Exeter Hall, Kidlington, on October 7, 8 and 9 (advance booking available by phone on 01865 553957 or 01865 202608, or in person at Celebrations, Turl Street, Oxford, and G & R Cycles, Kidlington). Twenty-three performers are due to contribute a wide range of turns from Gershwin to Joyce Grenfell to the Can-Can, and there will be “four wonderful choruses” for the audience to sing. Also promised are prizes for the best ladies’ hat, and the most luxuriant gentleman’s moustache. All proceeds will go to the Oxford Kidney Unit Trust Fund.