ORGANISING a village show holds no fear for Ged Bishop, the man who bared all (or nearly all) in a Full Monty sketch just a few years ago. After 28 years of masterminding the annual Doddington Village Show, the retired wholesale fruit and potato merchant,

ORGANISING a village show holds no fear for Ged Bishop, the man who bared all (or nearly all) in a Full Monty sketch just a few years ago.After 28 years of masterminding the annual Doddington Village Show, the retired wholesale fruit and potato merchant, is confident the forthcoming show will come up to the high standards of previous years. A full and talented programme of music, dance and comedy has been lined up.But when he looks back at the show's humble beginnings, even he is surprised at its current scale and professionalism.This year's show, in the village hall as usual, begins on Tuesday February 14 and runs to Saturday 18. The Saturday evening performance is already sold out. More than 1,000 people are expected to watch the programme of home-grown entertainment."It all started off when some pensioners were invited to the village hall for a cup of tea and some mince pies," said Ged. "We thought we would put on a spot of entertainment for them. People said they enjoyed it and it just went on from there. Now we have bus loads who want to come for a really good evening."The programme kicks off at 7.30 prompt and continues until about 10.45pm with two short intervals.Ged admits that sometimes things go wrong. "It is those things which are usually the funniest and people always remember them," he said.But the show which attracted most publicity was in 1998 when Ged, along with other brave villagers, took to the stage to do the Full Monty sketch. It was at the height of the film's popularity and teenage choreographer Gemma Clark helped them bring the house down.Ged recalls: "We wore G-strings dyed in tea bags to match the colour of our skin. At the end there wasn't a chink of light in the hall - thank goodness."Money from the event is used to help maintain the village hall and subsidise smaller organisations which may not have the money to pay full hire charges.Charity buckets are always strategically placed and last year about £500 was raised to buy local scouts a new tent.Tickets cost £4 for Tuesday and Wednesday, £5 Thursday and £6 Friday. They are available from Ged on 01354 740240.