Joyce Irene Grenfell OBE was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo shows. She never appeared as a stage actress, but had roles, mostly comic, in many films, including Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Police Sergeant Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's series. She was a well-known broadcaster on radio and television. As a writer, she was the first radio critic for The Observer, contributed to Punch and published two volumes of memoirs.
William Mervyn Pickwoad was an English actor best known for his portrayal of the bishop in the clerical comedy All Gas and Gaiters, the old gentleman in The Railway Children and Inspector Charles Rose in The Odd Man and its sequels.
Dulcie Winifred Catherine Savage Denison,, known professionally as Dulcie Gray, was a British actress, mystery writer and lepidopterist.
John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison was an English actor. He often appeared with his wife, Dulcie Gray, with whom he featured in several films and more than 100 West End theatre productions.
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, near Piccadilly Circus, in the City of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928.
Dame Irene Boucicault DBE, née Barnes, known professionally as Irene Vanbrugh was an English actress. The daughter of a clergyman, Vanbrugh followed her elder sister Violet into the theatrical profession and sustained a career for more than 50 years.
Benjamin Arthur Flemyng, known professionally as Robert Flemyng, was a British actor. The son of a doctor, and originally intended for a medical career, Flemyng learned his stagecraft in provincial repertory theatre. In 1935 he appeared in a leading role in the West End, and the following year had his first major success, in Terence Rattigan's comedy French Without Tears. Between then and the Second World War he appeared in London and New York in a succession of comedies.
Basil Sydney was an English stage and screen actor.
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.
Home at Seven is a 1950 British mystery play by R. C. Sherriff. The original production, starring Ralph Richardson, opened at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in February 1950. It transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End on 7 March 1950, for a run of 342 performances. Variety called it "one of the major successes of the legit season."
Tom Gill was a British actor who was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. He made his stage debut in 1935, and his theatre work included the original production of Noël Coward's After the Ball at the Globe Theatre in 1954. In 1951 he appeared at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End in the comedy play The Happy Family by Michael Clayton Hutton and reprised his role in the subsequent film adaptation.
William Pirie MacIlwraith was a British dramatist and screenwriter.
George Laurier Lister, OBE was an English theatre writer, actor, director and producer, best known for a series of revues presented in London in the late 1940s and 1950s. He was later associated with Laurence Olivier in the West End and at the Chichester Festival. From 1964 to 1975 he was director and administrator of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
On the Spot is a 1930 Chicago-set play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Wallace was inspired by a visit to the United States and, in particular, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Known as a prolific author, he reportedly dictated the manuscript for the play in just four days. It was his greatest theatrical success.
The Queen Who Kept Her Head is a 1934 historical play by the British writer Winifred Carter. It is based on the life of Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who outlived him.
The Blind Goddess is a 1947 play by the British barrister and writer Patrick Hastings.
The White Countess is a 1954 play by J.B. Priestley and his wife Jacquetta Hawkes.
Margaret Halstan was a British stage, radio, television and film actress. In theatre and film roles she often played upper-class ladies of the gentry, with a career spanning over six decades. She was particularly known for her Shakespearian roles, having debuted in 1895. At the turn of the century she joined Sir Frank Benson's theatre company, and also played in the theatrical companies of Sir George Alexander and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, before making her debut in silent films in 1916.
Seagulls Over Sorrento is a play by Hugh Hastings, an Australian who had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
Without Witness is a mystery thriller play by the British authors Anthony Armstrong and Harold Simpson. It premiered at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage on 27 December 1933 before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 75 performances between 12 March and 12 June 1934, having been revised slightly from its Embassy premiere. The West End cast included Nicholas Hannen, Arthur Wontner, Bernard Lee, Frederick Piper, Hugh E. Wright, Joan Marion and Marion Fawcett.
