Edna's happy to give boards a good wallop

At 81-years-old Edna Cobley has had plenty of people tell her to slow down and take up knitting instead of tap dancing.

However, the great-grandmother is as light on her feet as any 21-year-old and says she will keep on gracing stages across the Midlands for as long as she can.

At the moment Edna, who lives in Amersham Close, Quinton, is one of the guest performers in Wallop Mrs Cox! - a show which is on at Birmingham's Hippodrome Theatre until tomorrow.

The show stars Ed James from HeartFM and features song such as Hello Bull Ring, The Back of Rackhams and the anthem "Birmingham".

It is being staged by the Birmingham Musical Operatic Society and Edna says she is delighted to be the oldest member of the cast.

"I love being on stage and I don't think I will ever stop tap dancing - you just put tap-dancing shoes on my feet and you can't stop me," says Edna, who grew up in Stourbridge.

"When I was five-years-old my mother Rose took me to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

"I loved the whole thing and shouted really loudly 'I want to do that — I'm going to be on the stage' and everyone laughed at me."

However, 10 years later Edna made it onto the stage of the Alexandra Theatre in her tap-dancing shoes for a performance of Babes in the Wood.

"I also went on to do Aladdin and Cinderella at the Alexandra," says Edna, who has four children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. "My mother wasn't surprised as she said that when I set my mind to doing something, then I do it.

"I started dancing lessons when I was five with Peggy Ewins in Stourbridge.

"However, I wanted to learn professional dancing so when I was 14 I left school and joined Madam Lemiskie, who had a school on Station Street in Birmingham."

During the day Edna was working at a number of factories in the region, including the British Sound Recorders in Wollaston, but at night she was taking to the stage with her dancing. "I joined Madam Lemiskie because I wanted to make a career out of dancing," says Edna, whose late husband was Patrick.

"My idols were the stars I used to watch at the cinema in Brierley Hill such as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple.

"I left Lee Longlands School in Stourbridge when I was 14 and my first show was the Babes in the Wood at the Alexandra — my parents were so proud of me."

Edna teamed up with a friend Muriel Morgan and joined her dancing group which was called The Midland Mixtures. Then the friends became a double act called The Blue Jays. "The show I'm in at the moment at The Hippodrome is fantastic, and I play the part of a hooker — although it is just for a bit of fun," she says.

"I love being a pensioner as it gives me the chance to focus on things I really like.

"When people tell me to slow down I say to them 'the day you stop smoking and drinking is the day I stop dancing'.

"I absolutely adore it and I will never give up - I can't stop my feet from dancing, they just love it too much."