Arlington Arts Centre in Newbury took a step back in time to the Second World War as a new play took to the stage.

The Lion and the Unicorn, written by Robin Hawdon, performed at the centre on October 12th, by the Crime and Comedy Theatre Company.

Set in 1939, the play depicted a dinner party with Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill and their wives, six weeks after the Second World War had been declared.

The four meet for a private dinner where Chamberlain's efforts for peace with Hitler have been shattered, and Churchill has been recalled to the cabinet.

This dinner was the only time these four ever met socially.

As there is no official record of what happened at the dinner, and the play imagines the conversations that took place.

The play looked at the decisions that were made at this time and asks how far should one go to pacify a threatening dictator.

The setting is a radio studio, with the actors ready as if for a radio broadcast, and the sound effects created live on stage, all combining to transport the audience to wartime London.

The play starred TV royalty, Brian Capron (from Coronation Street and Where the Heart is) as Neville Chamberlain, Tim Hudson (from Father Brown and Churchill in the film 'De Gaulle') as Winston Churchill, Corinne Wicks (from Doctors and Emmerdale) as Clementine Churchill, and Frazer Hines (Emmerdale Farm and Doctor Who) as Inches, the Churchills' butler.

This is the newest play by Mr Hawdon, whose previous work inlcudes God and Stephen Hawking, and A Night In Provence.