ALAN Bennett’s 1984 film A Private Function has become a icon of British comedy, delighting successive generations with its gentle but unflinching look at life after the war and petty small town cliques and jealousies.

In 2011, Cameron Mackintosh commissioned George Stiles and Anthony Drewe to create a musical from the tale, and Betty Blue Eyes was born. Now the hilarious story of the illegal pig raised in secret for a private function to celebrate the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten comes to the stage of Milborne Port Village Hall, from 8th to 12th April.

MPO Musical Theatre (as Milborne Port Opera is now known) presents the story, set in a small Yorkshire town, of humble chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers and his social climbing wife Joyce, miffed about not being invited to the private dinner, although they are expected to minister to the fattening Betty. How better to scupper the pretentious plans than to steal the rationing-defying pig?

This is small-town life in microcosm. Pompous councillors, greedy farmers, worried doctors, zealous meat inspectors and all the snobbish hierarchy concentrate on the feeding of the and the lovely Betty with her irresistible blue eyes.

The show is directed by Gemma Shave-Smythies, making her MPO debut, with Jacky Manning taking over as musical director.

The cast is led by Rachel Milestone McAdorey as Joyce and Martin Porter as Gilbert, with Karen Pankhurst as Mother Dear, Chris Bailward as Dr Swaby, Ben Cliff as Alladyce, Richard Gaunt as the BBC newsreader, Neil Harrison Shaw as Farmer Sutcliffe and Anthony White as Inspector Wormold.

Will MPO have a performing live pig on stage? It’s a closely guarded secret. Performances are nightly at 7.30pm. For more information, visit www.mpopera.co.uk