In May 2007 Saffron Walden celebrated its dramatic role as the cradle of the English Revolution. Three hundred and sixty years ago this quiet Essex town was the storm-centre of an epoch-making mutiny by the New Model Army, characterised by a spontaneous outbreak of democracy in the ranks of the ordinary soldiery. It was followed by the forceful seizure and abduction of England’s anointed king, Charles I, at Holmby House in Northamptonshire by cornet George Joyce and other subordinate officers in which "all did command".

This costumed presentation by John and June Sutton recreated these turbulent days from the royal perspective, concentrating on the personal experience of England’s tragic monarch as he wrestled with imprisonment by the New Model Army and desperately sought to escape its clutches.

In the guise of Sir Thomas Herbert, one of Charles I's principal attendants in captivity, John Sutton vividly described both the New Model Army's illegal kidnapping of the King and its doomed negotiations with him at Newmarket palace in the early summer of 1647; while, assuming the persona of Mrs Jane Whorwood, a high-spirited lady of pronounced royalist sympathies, June Sutton followed with a gripping narrative of this extraordinary woman's determined - but ultimately unsuccessful - attempts to rescue her beloved sovereign whilst he was imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle the following year.

Tickets were available from the Tourist Information Centre, 1 Market Place, Saffron Walden CB10 1HR (Tel: 01799 510444) or you could order them by post by downloading an application form