LAST year's touring stage drama hit Birdsong is back in the region and will be performed at Darlington Civic Theatre next week (March 10-14, 2015).

Sebastian Faulks' moving story set in the Great War, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, received rave reviews throughout the 2013-14 tour. It focuses on the dangerous job of the "sewer rats" – sappers, many of them former miners, who tunnelled under enemy lines to set explosive devices in the Somme.

Their horrors and fears are counterbalanced by flashbacks to a love affair in pre-war France.

Peter Duncan heads the cast as veteran soldier Jack Firebrace with Newcastle-born Edmund Wiseman in the romance lead as the young officer Stephen Wraysford opposite Emily Bowker as the unhappy French wife who becomes his lover.

Though perhaps best known as a Blue Peter presenter, Peter Duncan began his acting career in the 1970s when he joined the National Theatre. Recent theatre credits include Denry Machin in The Card, for which he received an Olivier nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, Alan Ayckbourn‘s Things We Do For Love, Stan Laurel in Laurel and Hardy, Macduff in Macbeth and Fantastic Mr Fox, both at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park.

Performances run from Tuesday to Saturday, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday, and a free post-show talk on Wednesday. For tickets, call 01325 486555 or book online via darlingtoncivic.co.uk.