A new one-act play by local author Roy Maddox has won the award for 'Best Unpublished Play' at the Welwyn Drama Festival.

Royston drama group CADS entered The Blonde Bombshell into this year’s competition and came away with the prize for a brand new script.

Corvus Amateur Drama Society (CADS) also came fifth out of a very strong field of 14 plays at the Barn Theatre.

The CADS play tells the story of a celebrated wartime poster designed by official war poster artist Abram Games.

Royston Crow: Nicky Paton and Alice Atkins in rehearsal for the CADS showNicky Paton and Alice Atkins in rehearsal for the CADS show (Image: CADS)

Commissioned to design a recruitment poster for the ATS, Games chose as his model a young woman who happened to wander into his studio.

The resulting poster was an instant hit with the public, who nicknamed it 'The Blonde Bombshell', and it led to thousands of young women joining the services.

But concerns were expressed in Parliament about the image it portrayed of women in the forces.

Roy Maddox’s play tells its story from the viewpoint of the young model and explores attitudes then and now to images of women.

Directors Michael Young and Martin Maynard said: “We’re delighted that Roy has won this award and proud of the achievement of the group as a whole, especially as one of our actors, Kathy Young, was a last-minute stand-in in a very challenging role.

"We’re now looking at the possibility of staging the play here in Royston some time in the near future so that our regular audiences get a chance to see it.”

Martin, himself a former professional actor, is currently preparing for a series of free acting workshops, focusing on duologues.

These are due to start next month and are open to anyone.

Full details can be found on the CADS website at www.cadsroyston.org.uk or contact cadssecretary@gmail.com