A FORMER manager of Richmond's Georgian Theatre Royal is returning to directing and a spot of acting.

Les Jobson, who managed the eighteenth century theatre from 1987 to 1992, directs the town operatic society's production of The Good Companions which is staged at the newly-refurbished premises from August 20-23. He also has two walk-on parts in this J B Priestley musical.

Mr Jobson was born in 1922 in a colliery village near Bishop Auckland and served in the RAF during the Second World War. He qualified as a teacher and rose to be headteacher of a junior school in Billingham.

During his teaching years, he became involved in presenting professional shows.

"It was once said that I had presented everything from Muffin the Mule to opera and ballet, from Kenny Ball and Ken Dodd to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra," he said.

Mr Jobson worked at the Forum Theatre, Billingham, from the Sixties to the early Eighties, first as administrator and then for more than ten years as director. He was involved in dozens of shows, including 13 West End productions and 50 touring productions.

A founder of the Billingham international Folklore Festival, he stage-managed the outdoor concerts and presented shows on-stage and outdoors.

In the Eighties, Mr Jobson was company manager of several major pantomimes in theatres across the country.

He was also company manager of Call Me Madam at the Victoria Palace, London, and the stage version of Hi De Hi.

Since retiring as manager of Richmond's theatre, he has presented four Gilbert and Sullivan weekends in the town.

Before agreeing to the walk-on parts for the operatic society, he had appeared on stage only once, playing the theatre's original 1788 manager in a Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society production to celebrate the theatre's 200th anniversary.

* Performances of The Good Companions are nightly at 7.30; tickets are £3 to £7 from the box office, tel 01748 825252.