SCORES of people watched an enterprising north Wales town stage a virtual celebration of the VE Day 75th anniversary.

Earlier this year, with the blessing of Llangollen Town Council, a small group began planning for a party to celebrate the milestone anniversary of VE Day.

The aim was to put it on at the town hall and to include a tea dance, music of the era and generally make merry.

The coronavirus lockdown appeared to put an end to the project, until they came up with the idea of staging the celebration online instead.

So last Friday the group live streamed their VE Day Stay at Home Party via Facebook to a large social media audience.

The professionally-shot programme, which runs for half an hour, featured memories of the wartime era recorded via Skype with a group of residents at the local Old Vicarage Care Home, favourite songs from the period by local performers and a poignant wreath-laying ceremony by the town’s branch of the Royal British Legion.

Eleri Jones, a local actor and director currently on the trainee directorship at Theatr Clwyd, performed local poet I D Hooson's The Red Poppy against the backdrop of 75 ceramic poppies placed behind the war memorial on Centenary Square.

The programme, which was pre-recorded observing strict social distancing rules, ended with host Charlie Jones performing Dame Vera Lynn’s iconic We’ll Meet Again.

Deputy town mayor Cllr Richards, who heads the council’s Remembrance Day Working Group which organised the virtual party, said: “When the lockdown began we immediately cancelled our planned party at the town hall but then we decided that a version of the event could be streamed on social media.

“We have been extremely fortunate in having a professional programme maker who is based in Llangollen as director on the production and also being able to draw on the talents, in terms of organisation and performance, of quite a few people from this area.

“We were also very lucky to have a number of marvellous people still living in our community who remember the war very clearly and who allowed us to record their recollections of the time.”

She added: “The programme has been a big success and attracted large numbers of people, when it was live streamed and since as it remains on Facebook as a video.”

To coincide with the programme Llangollen Food Share sent out 300 gift to the town's elderly residents to help them celebrate the 75th anniversary.

To tune into the VE-Day film, go to the Parti Aros Gartref Dydd B E Llangollen V E Day Stay at Home Party page on Facebook.