The Guy is brought back to Warwick tonight

The Slaughterhouse Players, a drama group that grew out of a bunch of regular customers at the Simple Simon pub, are telling the tale of Sir Guy of Warwick through the form of theatre - but with some rather cheeky additions of their own.

Chris Willsmore is co-founder of the group and used to run both the pub and the nearby Slaughterhouse Brewery - which continues to sponsor the Players despite his having left the company.

He said: “I have done a lot of research on the story of Guy of Warwick. I have travelled across Europe looking into it.

“He is better known on the Continent than he is here. That’s why we wanted to do this comedy.

“The Warwick Play is very politically incorrect, but it does tell all the salient parts of the story.”

Chris, who although originally from Liverpool has lived in Warwick for 38 years, feels it is important to bring back Guy to the historic town.

He said: “I was at the Museum of Berlin recently, where there are nine ‘worthies’ - one of whom which was Guy of Warwick! Yet you talk to people in Warwick who have either not heard of him, or say he was just a myth.

“At Guy’s Cliffe you can see an original inscription written by Guy. It’s amazing how few people in Warwick know that that exists. Writing this was a labour of love.”

According to legend, Guy was a great hero whose doughty deeds abroad won him the hand of the Earl of Warwick’s daughter.

Soon after the wedding, Guy set off on another pilgrimage to the Holy Land and on his return, he saved England from an invasion of the Danes by defeating their champion, a giant called Colbrand, in mortal combat.

But he is most famous for killing the infamous Dun Cow – an enormous, savage beast that was terrorising the local populace.

Chris said: “It’s a mixture of the true history of Guy along with a lot of contemporary references, although it is still very much a costume drama - Guy has a chain mail and a Norman-style helmet, for example.

“We have brought it up to date and have included jokes about phone hacking and the Coalition and things like that.”

The Warwick Play will be performed at the Wild Boar pub in Lakin Road tonight (Saturday) at 7pm and tomorrow (Sunday) at 2pm. It is free to attend but patrons are encouraged to make a voluntary donation towards the cost of staging the show.