CHARLES Dickens takes a swipe at the Victorian establishment in the Pickwick Papers, the novel that has given birth to a successful musical.

The eponymous hero finds himself flung into a debtor's prison after a misunderstanding and the so called pillars of the community, such as the members of the judiciary who help seal his fate, are depicted as brainless buffoons.

Urmston Musical Theatre will perform Pickwick, the show made famous by the late Sir Harry Secombe, next week.

While Secombe had a hit with If I Ruled The World, Aidan Kielty, UMT's press officer, is bristling with enthusiasm over the talents of their leading man.

As part of his research into the role of Pickwick, Andrew Harrison made a 700 mile round trip to see an open air production in Cornwall.

A regular with the East Cheshire Operatic Society, Andrew continues Urmston's commendable tradition of giving plum parts to newcomers to the society.

"One of the Urmston traditions is that, basically, the best person for the part gets the part. We have an auditioning panel who base their judgement on what they see at the audition and Andrew was excellent.

"We were struggling, at the beginning, to get people to fill the role because it is a proper tenor role. He actually hits a top C in one of his songs, which is extremely high. We were struggling to get a true tenor," says Aidan.

Aidan has become a champion of this show and believes its selling points are its score, its sense of humour and a range of colourful characters.

He thinks societies have been put off staging it because they see it as Sir Harry's musical and believe his performance as Pickwick - I saw him do the part at the Opera House - will never be bettered.

Is there a danger that some locals may be put off going to see Pickwick because it's based on a Dickens novel? After all, some people think of his work as heavy going and rather depressing.

Aidan says: "Possibly - and also because it's not a regular on the amateur circuit." Rick Bowen

* Urmston Musical Theatre presents Pickwick by Cyril Ornadel and Leslie Bricusse at Urmston Sports Centre, Bowfell Road, Flixton, from October 22-26 at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tickets priced £7, £5 or £2 are available from Gary Brockbanks on 718 1010, Harrison's Travel, Bailey's Carpet Centre or Murray's Quality Fresh Food.