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9-919: BFBS Live Events/CSE is the successor to the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). Originally, it was called the Central Pool of Artists . It emerged during and after the Second World War as the British Armed Forces' concert party . Artists who began their careers in the Central Pool of Artists, and later the CSE, included Benny Hill , Kenneth Williams , Spike Milligan , Stanley Baxter , Edmund Purdom , Ken Platt and Peter Nichols . Nichols later adapted his experiences into

18-703: A 1977 stage play (and later film) called Privates on Parade . In later years, James Fox undertook many CSE tours to entertain British troops on active service in Afghanistan , Bosnia , The Falkland Islands and Iraq . In recognition of this, he was twice invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall before the Queen as part of the Festival of Remembrance . In 2004, he presented a film highlighting

27-667: Is the Garrison Theatre at Hurst Castle in the New Forest National Park . Created by servicemen in 1939, the proscenium arch still bears the badge and grenades of the Royal Artillery , and the curtains still hang from an original galvanised gas pipe. Shows are presented from time to time by the Friends of Hurst Castle. Love Story (1944 film) Too Many Requests If you report this error to

36-654: The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), with the CSE likewise re-branding as BFBS Live Events . The first big wartime variety concert organised by ENSA was broadcast by the BBC to the Empire and local networks from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939. Among the entertainers appearing on the bill were Adelaide Hall , The Western Brothers and Mantovani . A newsreel of this concert showing Hall singing " We're Going to Hang out

45-589: The Washing on the Siegfried Line " accompanied by Mantovani and His Orchestra exists. Many members of ENSA later had careers in the entertainment industry after the war, including actors Terry-Thomas , Peter Sellers and Kenneth Connor . Tap and acrobatic dancer Vivienne Hole, stage name Vivienne Fayre, a civilian aged 19, was the only ENSA member killed in the war. On 23 January 1945 in Normandy , she

54-565: The acronym ENSA was "Every Night Something Awful" . ENSA plays a modest role in the film Love Story (1944) in which Margaret Lockwood stars as a concert pianist who makes an ENSA tour to North Africa and the Mediterranean region. The film Desert Mice (1959) follows the fictional escapades of an ENSA troop with Sid James assigned to the Afrika Korps . The only known ENSA theatre to have survived in its original condition

63-534: The work of CSE before his performance. This article about a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This United Kingdom military article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This World War II article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Entertainments National Service Association The Entertainments National Service Association ( ENSA )

72-574: Was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II . ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes . In 1946 it was re-named to Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) operating under the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), until 2 March 2020, when the SSVC re-branded to

81-477: Was being driven between shows as a passenger aboard a truck carrying stage scenery which strayed into a minefield. She was buried with full military honours in Sittard War Cemetery. Despite many extremely talented entertainers working for ENSA, the organisation was necessarily spread thin over the vast area it had to cover. Thus many entertainments were substandard, and the popular translation of

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