ONE story dominated the Adver’s pages this week in 1971.

It would be another two months before the Queen and Prince Philip opened the shiny new Wyvern Theatre during an official visit to Swindon, but it was due to open for business on Tuesday, September 7.

That is how an energetic dance company from deep inside what was then the Soviet Union came to play a small part in Swindon showbusiness history.

The Dukla Dance Company from Ukraine, who would play New York’s Carnegie Hall the following year, was to have the distinction of being the first act seen when the Wyvern curtain rose.

Throughout the week before that opening show, we ran a slew of Wyvern-related stories.

The dance company, we said, would head for Swindon from a successful engagement at the Wimbledon Theatre.

A spokesman for the promoter said: “They are a lovely company. The dancing is very good and the singing is excellent.

“There is a certain humour in the way they sing, and they have an attractive catch to their voices.”

The sign outside the Wyvern described it not just as a theatre but an arts centre, and we explained that there was something for everybody.

When it came to music, major folk rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper led the charge, with an appearance due on September 12. Another folk star, British-based American Julie Felix, was booked for October 17.

We revealed: “Nick Pritchard, chairman and secretary of the old Swindon Folk, Ballads and Blues Club, which used to meet at the Castle Inn, says Julie is a personal friend of his.

“She came to Swindon several times to do charity concerts and try out material for Albert Hall concerts and national tours.”

Mr Pritchard had also been a co-organiser of a Castle appearance by an obscure young American called Paul Simon nearly a decade earlier.

Humphrey Lyttleton’s jazz band was also scheduled for a Wyvern appearance before the end of the year, as was a now largely forgotten Midlands folk-pop band called The Settlers. Their star was fairly high in 1971 as they performed the theme music of a popular children’s TV drama called Follyfoot.

The youngest Wyvern Theatre-goers could look forward to appearances by old favourites such as ventriloquist Terry Hall and his puppet, Lenny the Lion.

The Wyvern was also to screen films, and Kirk Douglas Western There Was A Crooked Man was chosen to be the first. In those days no cinema screening was complete without a support feature, and the Wyvern chose various shorts reflecting Swindon’s status as a railway town. They included King George V, a documentary about one of the most famous Swindon-built locos.

We also ran a lavish feature about the fabric of the building. As our photographs prove, they layout of the public areas has changed little in 44 years, although the decor has been updated many times.

We said: “Perhaps the best thing about Swindon’s new theatre, The Wyvern, is that wherever you sit you won’t get a crick in the neck from trying to see the stage.

“The auditorium is fairly steeply raked, and provided a tall woman with a vast hat isn’t sitting directly in front of you, you should be able to enjoy the play, film or concert as if you were sitting in an armchair at home.”

We also found space for some non-Wyvern stories, including an especially charming one.

Double weddings are almost unheard of today and were rare even then, but we managed to deliver a report about one.

We said: “A tale of two sisters and their double dates came to a close at Holy Rood Church, Swindon, on Saturday.

“Miss Angela Thinnes, the daughter of Mr and Mrs J Thinnes, of Hamble Road, Greenmeadow, and her younger sister, Margaret, met their future husbands at the same time.

“The couples got engaged at the same time, and they finished off with a double wedding.”

Angela’s husband was Clifford Muxworthy, also of Hamble Road, while her sister married Dennis Hyde, whose family lived in Cricklade Road.

The father of the brides walked them down the aisle.

We hope both marriages have been long and happy.

Swindon Town hero Don Rogers was also in the news, having been invited to the Beehive pub on Prospect Hill. His task was to push over an enormous pile of pennies which had been donated by regulars in aid of a local residential home for blind people.

The pennies in question would only be legal tender for another few days. Earlier in the year the country had switched to decimal currency from the ancient system of 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.

It was this week in 1971 that the large old pennies and 12-sided – dodecagonal, if one was being technical – ‘threepenny bits’ could be exchanged for new coinage at banks. A dozen old pennies were worth five new ones.

The last day for handing them in was the last day of August, but local banks and shops reported the exact opposite of a panic.

One bank official told us: “The coins just ‘died’ after decimalisation.”