Songs and Scenes from       
"JELLICOE" the Musical       
Song lyrics are in italics      

Against a backdrop of crooked rooves and broken chimneys, residents of 1920s Somers Town are in dole queues, at a pawnbroker's, scrubbing steps, scrounging scraps or selling matches. A steam train is heard approaching. They sing: 
    "The trains that come to Somers Town, bring wealth from all the Kingdom, 
     But no wealth stays in Somers Town, we only get the dust and grime!" 
Irene Barclay, Britain's first woman surveyor, tells Dr Monica Shaw: 
    "These houses were beautiful long ago, years of neglect have ruined them all". 
 "That's why the death rate is so high", says Dr Shaw, as a funeral procession stop at a pub for a "knees up".  Dr Shaw praises the efforts of the new Anglican priest, Father Basil Jellicoe, to help the community, as children skip on with him:
    "Jelly Belly, Jelly Belly, he's our jolly Jelly Belly, 
     he plays the accordion and knows the tunes to make us merry"
Fr Jellicoe, tall, dark and dynamic orders the children to school, but an orphan, Kathie, refuses to leave him.  Dr Shaw asks Fr Jellicoe to arrange a seaside holiday for Lenny, a bronchitic boy. Jellicoe says he will do so.  The world's first Pearly King, Henry Croft enters, and sings of his rise to fame from St Pancras Orphanage: 
    "Penny for the orphans, thank you, Nothing that an orphan can't do." 
Kathie overhears, and skips off jubilantly: "Nothing that an orphan can't do". 
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Fr Jellicoe visits Lenny and is appalled by the dank, bug-infested walls of the single room which Lenny's family inhabit. He promises to arrange a seaside holiday for Lenny, and goes. Bert, Lenny's unemployed father, resolves to steal to buy food for Lenny: 
    "When your kids are starvin' and you ain't got a farvin' 
     do you sit on your arse and watch 'em get thinner?" 
"Be careful Bert", warns Lenny's mother Vera, as she sends a child to borrow milk which she heats for Lenny at a gaslight mantle. 
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In his bedroom at the Mission, Fr Jellicoe can't sleep. He envisages no hope for the community in such a hellish environment, and contemplates resigning. His assistant, Fr Percy Maryon Wilson, tries to cheer him: 
    "Don't bang your hear against a wall, step to the side and skip around it". 
"You can't resign at a time like this...It's three o'clock in the morning." Percy goes. 

Then Jellicoe sees: 
    "A vision in the night sky, words that flame above the squalor 
    'They shall build up the old ruins and restore the generations'...
    This is my task...to restore this town...with a blueprint drawn in heav'n!" 

He visits elderly chairbound Sadie and asks her to pray for the project. She vows to do so, and lights a candle. Fr Jellicoe goes from house to house and more candles are lit as Sadie sings: 
    "Build your bricks with my prayers, mix cement with my tears, every passing hour!" 
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Dawn. Dr Shaw is out on an early call when she finds Fr Jellicoe staggering from exhaustion. She commands that he take a holiday: 
    "Perpetual motion's a great idea, but who could survive the wear and tear, 
    If you use yourself up for others then there's none of you left for anyone." 

Act 2. Mog the Firewoman, a crazed visionary who senses the spirits that fly from stillborn children, wakes the workers: 
    "Knock 'em up at four o'clock, penny a door is all I got to knock 'em up each morning." 
She rouses a market porter - "Off to Covent Garden on a frosty morning", 
a train driver - "Drivin' a loco up to Glasgow", 
as the Mums of Somers Town set the table and play the spoons: 
    "We find poverty goes far, sharing it around." 
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August Bank Holiday. Fr Jellicoe has returned, and accompanied by Kathie whom he has adopted, drives children to Hampstead Heath. 
Nell and Jim, teenagers who secretly are in love sing: 
    "And yet imagine, in this ugly street, how we could make life complete." 
Nell "could even think of marriage, but there's just one room at me Mum's." 
       ---------------------------------------- 
Miss Edith Neville, alone, reveals her secret love in the song "Dear Father Jellicoe", but she decides: 
    "I'll curb the restlessness of my heart, to serve the arts and work for the common 
    good." 

Miss Neville and Fr Jellicoe convene the inaugural meeting of a housing society: 
    "We'll build the New Jerusalem and keep the key at St Pancras House Improvement 
    Society" 
The Society purchase their first property, a dilapidated terrace in Gee Street. 

Next morning Fr Jellicoe visits Gee Street to see the property, and visualises the fine housing that will replace the squalor. Street vendors call their wares, as Father Jellicoe calls his: 
    "New homes for old ones, that's what I sell, I will exchange you Heaven for Hell!"
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Irene Barclay addresses St Pancras Rotary Society about the work of St Pancras Housing, and assures them that tenants are paying rents for the new properties, in her song "Rent Lady". The tenants express their enthusiasm for their new homes: 
    "Come on down to Somers Town, see the new life we have found, 
    We were feeling down and out, soon we'll be in clover!" 
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The housing society are contemplating the purchase of the extensive Drummond Street Estate for twenty thousand pounds but they only have five thousand in the bank. Miss Neville emboldens them: 
    "Why are we doing this? Because it's worth the risk 
    If we just gaze at it we'll get paralysis" 
and they buy it! 
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On the Drummond Street site they contemplate the plans of their architect Ian Hamilton. Then Mr Hunt from the London County Council visits the site, announcing that he may declare the land 'unsanitary', which would make their investment worthless. Jellicoe argues that the scheme has the support of a prominent cabinet minister, Neville Chamberlain. Hunt goes, and the Society decide they will proceed with their plans and face the consequences. But Fr Jellicoe has secret doubts: 

    "Have I led all our hopes to bankruptcy?" he asks, and collapses.

During the interval, singing "workmen" turn around the two backdrops to reveal the improved appearance of the new buildings, in particular the clothes drying posts with their 'finials'. These are ceramic ornaments set at the top of the drying posts. The finials have various designs - some are birds, some are fish - and these now appear upstage painted in large relief, and in the brilliant colours prescribed by Gilbert Bayes, their world famous designer. 

Act 3. The town is excited and wears its Sunday best, because Queen Mary and Edward, Prince of Wales, are visiting. The housing society proudly show off the improvements: 
    "Beauty for the people, all designed by Mister Gilbert Bayes, 
    In most vivid colours, and the finest glaze!" 
The Drummond Estate is a great success, and more rebuilding has commenced. 
The Royals are disappointed that Fr. Jellicoe is away ill. 
The Queen receives tributes from the tenants as they sing a reprise of 
"Come on down to Somers Town".
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In her fish and chip shop Carlotta sings of the preparations she has made for the Royal visit: 
    "Little vases with royal colours, flowers red, flowers white and blue". 

Nell and Jim enter and coyly disclose that they are to be married thanks to Fr Jellicoe, because Nell's Mum now has a larger flat. The announcement is relayed to the crowd outside, and soon the Royals and their subjects are dancing to Carlotta's song: 
    "Spuds are peeled, and fish are all in batter, See you at Carlotta's Fish and Chip!"
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Father Jellicoe returns unexpectedly to chair the housing society, seeking to take control of the various projects which others have conducted in his absence. The members are irritated by this, excuse themselves and leave the meeting early. 
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Admiral Jellicoe, the priest's uncle, is laying the stone for a new estate. Fr Jellicoe confides that he feels ill at ease with the housing society after his return from illness. 

Fr Jellicoe is welcomed by Nell and Jim, who are grateful for the new housing he has instigated. He promises them he will conduct their wedding. 

Vera tells Fr Jellicoe that Bert is in gaol for burglary and she has no money to provide Christmas fare for the children. Jellicoe gives her money, and she sings: 
    "Six bob for Christmas and the world's all right...
     in God and Christmas pudding put your trust". 
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At the annual general meeting of the housing society, Jellicoe is unnerved to hear of the resignations of Fr.Percy and Miss Hill, and the absence through illness of Irene Barclay. He falters in his speech, but Miss Neville supports him, and tells the meeting he has important news for them. Jellicoe explains that he has long wanted to run a pub for the benefit of the community, and that this is about to happen. Some of the listeners are horrified: 
    "A parson running a pub? From the pulpit to the bar, it's really going too far! 
    Jesus may have once mixed with publicans, 
    let us not make the same mistake, a parson running a pub!" 

Click here for details of supporters and of the 2003 production at The Shaw Theatre.

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