The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II.

ENSA was the world’s largest ever entertainment organisation that included Gracie Fields, George Formby, Tommy Trinder, Noel Coward and Joyce Grenfell to name but a few. Despite many extremely talented entertainers working for ENSA, the organisation was necessarily spread thin over the vast area it had to cover. Thus, many entertainments were substandard, and the popular translation of the acronym ENSA was “Every Night Something Awful”.

This is a talk looking at how ENSA and other war-time organisations raised our morale in the dark years of 1939-1945.

As Churchill said to ENSA performers: “Your job is to sing while the guns are blazing.”