PRESENTER Hello, and what a special treat we've got lined up for you tonight. In the first of a series of discussions concentrating on your community, I am joined by Roger Prentiss of (Potters Bar) who has a very special job. Hello Roger.

ROGER Hello, Gary.

PRESENTER Roger, what is your job and how does it support local people?

ROGER Well, Gary, I'm sure everyone here has heard of Community Policemen, but I am a community soldier.

PRESENTER A community soldier?

ROGER Green Beret, actually - what you might call a community commando.

PRESENTER What made you choose such an unusual career?

ROGER I suppose because I was interested in preserving the fabric of community and also interested in violence, and this seemed the best way of, like, combining the two. Also, I've been very lucky. Very lucky. Life's been good to me - it's given me my own semi-automatic rifle and I really want to put that back into the community. (PAUSE) I mean, not literally. I mean...well, yes; I suppose I do mean it literally.

PRESENTER What do you do in a typical day?

ROGER My first call is usually at a local infants school for weapons and tactics training, then it's off to the junior school for jungle warfare basics, then after lunch it's the local comprehensive for survival behind enemy lines. Then I go home.

PRESENTER So you work a lot with children?

ROGER Oh, yes. Yes indeed. Yes.

PRESENTER What interests you so much about school children?

ROGER Ermm, I think that kids are our greatest teachers, and the way they handle the live ammunition - it's a joy to behold.

PRESENTER Ammunition?

ROGER Live ammunition, yes. I know what you're thinking, but I can assure you that the accidents have been few.

PRESENTER Few?

ROGER Comparatively few. Yes, comparatively few maimings.

PRESENTER Compared with what?

ROGER With statistics for ammunition-handling related accidents on the Western Front in 1916. But I mean, the kids are just great. Yeah, really great, and I think the outcome of my impending court case will vindicate me completely.

PRESENTER But community soldiering is still a very new concept, is it not?

ROGER Oh yes. There aren't many of us. Just me, in fact.

PRESENTER But not all your work deals with practical soldiering, does it?

ROGER No, no. Obviously, being self-employed I have a lot of paperwork to do.

PRESENTER What sort of paperwork?

ROGER Letters to the next of kin, mainly. That's the part I hate most about the job. But there's the good side, too. I get a huge discount on body bags

PRESENTER How do you react to your critics when they suggest that you are a violent and dangerous psychopath?

ROGER Well, they're just nit-picking, aren't they? They don't bother to mention all the good I do. I mean, I do have support out there.

PRESENTER Who from?

ROGER Well, my parole officer says I've shown considerable improvement. And there are my friends.

PRESENTER Which friends?

ROGER My bayonet, my rifle butt, my bullets and the will to survive. These are my best friends. Oh, and Trevor from the Day Centre.

PRESENTER Roger, why do you do it?

ROGER Job satisfaction, Gary. I don't think anything can compare with seeing an adolescent girl sewing up an open flesh wound with raw twine and a needle she's made for herself out of a piece of her own shin bone.

PRESENTER What did you do before community soldiering?