League table of Grand Theatre greats brings actors Trevor Bannister and Peter Byrne to top spots

Last week we identified Dulcie Gray as the star who had the longest span of appearances at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre, from 1943 to 2001 - 58 years.

Few actors came close to that figure, due to the closure of the Grand between 1972 and 1981.

A review of my Grand history research has shown that several stars bridged the nine-year gap but only three

achieved a span of more than 50 years.

They were Peter Byrne with 56 years, Trevor Bannister with 53 and Barbara Murray with 52.

Peter Byrne (1928-2018) was in two summer season plays. In 1952 he was a young police officer in The Blue Lamp, which starred Jack Warner and in 1954 he played Phil Archer, with Jack Warner as Dan Archer, in the stage version of BBC radio’s The Archers.

Television viewers of way back will remember that in 1955 he was with Jack Warner when Dixon of Dock Green was launched on BBC-TV. Peter played DC Andy Crawford in 300 episodes.

At the Grand in June, 1964, Peter Byrne was the judge in A Shot in the Dark, a French farce by Marcel Archard. This was the play on which the second Pink Panther film was based.

When the Grand reopened in March, 1981, the second week’s attraction saw Peter Byrne as the detective in Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced.

And after seven more Grand visits his final play was another Agatha saga, titled And Then There Were None, in February, 2008.

Trevor Bannister (1934-2011) also played a police constable in his first visit to the Grand. It was a small part in Spider’s Web, by Agatha Christie, for a week in January, 1957.

In April, 1962, Trevor had moved up the billing order and came to the Grand in the title role of Billy Liar, by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.

Best known for his character Mr Lucas in the long-running BBC sitcom Are You Being Served, Trevor bridged the Grand’s dark years and starred with Barbara Windsor and Jack Smethurst in 1981’s summer season comedy play The Mating Game, by Robin Hawdon.

He made eight more visits in plays, the last being in April, 2010, in the farce Wife Begins at Forty, by Ray Cooney, which gave Trevor a span of 53 years of Grand appearances.

Next in our league table of Grand Theatre points is Barbara Murray (1929-2014) who was probably best known for her role of Lady Pamela Wilder in the 1960s TV series The Plane Makers and The Power Game.

Her 52-year span of Grand visits began in January, 1948, in the cast of a forgotten farce called Jack’s the Girl.

In May, 1952, she was seen in the tour of a play called Adam’s Apple and in November, 1957, was with Ian Carmichael, prior-to-London, in a sex comedy titled The Tunnel of Love.

After the Grand’s long closure, Barbara Murray was with Simon Ward and Clifford Rose in the theatre’s most successful drama of the 1980s, the Francis Durbridge thriller House Guest, for a week in April, 1982.

Her last Grand visit was in January 2000, as Miss Marple in Murder at the Vicarage, with David Griffin and Sophie Lawrence.

Few actors get through a career without an Agatha Christie play or two!

Next week: Who appeared at the Grand in the same play 44 years apart?