Treading the boards has become a family affair for Alan Hackett and his clan who have clocked up 133 years in the spotlight.
Alan has been gracing the stage for 43 years, his wife Madeline for 37 years, her 83-year-old mother Joan Rogers enjoyed 26 years in the theatre and his children Emma and Ben have notched up 17 years between them.
The Hacketts stage antics were originally sparked by a love affair.
Alan, who runs One Stop Training from his home in Sharmans Cross Road, Solihull, first appeared on stage at the age of 16 playing a henchman in Mother Goose. Little did he know that just a few years later he would of his life.
Madeline, a dancer turned society choreographer, and Alan first caught each others eye in 1969 when the group performed the Arcadians when 53-year-old Madeline was about to get engaged to another man.
But he plucked up the courage to ask her out, they got on like a house on fire and she broke off her engagement.
Not wanting to be upstaged or do anything without artistic panache, a year later he proposed as the curtain went down on the last night of a run of Oklahoma at Birminghams Hippodrome.
Theatre has been, and is, our lives really, added Alan, who founded the BMOS Youtheatre and is both secretary and director, and his wife Madeline, a PA at ALS Ltd in Shirley, is the BMOS secretary.
Its been a happy, theatrical union and their two children have followed in their footsteps.
In fact the family have appeared together on stage several times, including in the Sound of Music.
