Tribute to Grand Theatre’s Geoff Tolson and how a pint with Albert Finney lead to his love of acting

By Barry Band
Geoff Tolson, who died recentlyGeoff Tolson, who died recently
Geoff Tolson, who died recently

Northern accents in the corner of a Stratford-upon-Avon pub caught the ear of a young actor.He was from Salford and wondered where the visitors were from. He took his drink over.

And having a pint with Albert Finney in the Dirty Duck (the Black Swan) was influential on young Geoff Tolson, visiting Stratford with a youth club party from Cleveleys.

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Albert Finney was with the Royal Shakespeare Company prior to his movie breakthrough in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

Geoff, who died recently and was remembered in a Gazette tribute article this week, joined the Thornton Cleveleys Operatic Society, in non-singing roles, and was invited to join Blackpool’s Green Room Players.

The Players often appeared in the 1960s at the Grand Theatre, where Geoff was to have a major role with the Friends of the Grand in saving the theatre from demolition in the 1970s.

A brief re-cap: Geoff organised the teams of volunteers for front-of-house duties when the Grand reopened and was chairman of the Friends in the early 80s. As members of the theatre trust board Geoff and his wife, Linda, took on the job of sorting out the Grand Theatre archives, and did many presentations of the Grand story.

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Among Geoff’s anecdotes from meeting and chauffeuring stars who came to the Grand is a beauty which sums up the busy lives of actors who toured.

Geoff and Linda got to know Sir Anthony Quayle, whose later years were spent in taking theatre into the provinces, including five Grand Theatre visits in the 80s.

On one occasion, accompanying Sir Anthony to a local event, the famous actor said: “Remind me, what town is this?”

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Memory Laners of a certain age must have uttered “Exactly” when reading Sunday columnist Garry Bushell’s withering put-down of “graduate humour” on the telly.

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He referred to BBC2’s new Monday night series Comedians: Home Alone as the Beeb’s latest car crash.

He pithily wrote that grad humour consistently under-performs, while chattering class snobs have sniped at comics from the old variety days and holiday camps. Garry’s gist was that TV needs more down-to-earth talents like Bradley Walsh and fewer self-amusing bores.

Which leads to a flashback to the night in September, 1961, when two stars of the old days performed the whole show of Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

There was an Equity strike, which threatened to void the show. Step forward compere Bruce Forsyth and his pal Norman Wisdom to do the lot.

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You may have seen the result last Sunday on the Talking Pictures channel, which has been running old Palladium shows for a few months.

The decorator sketch is always worth seeing but this time we also saw multi-instrumentalist Norman doing his hilarious When Irish Eyes Are Smiling routine.

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Was the Waterloo (mentioned last week) the first Blackpool cinema to close, in 1959? Or was it the Oxford or the Empire or the Dominion? Sorry folks, it was the little Tatler in 1954. The Church Street house, now the big BHF charity shop, was revamped from the scruffy Clifton Palace in 1950. But even sexy French flicks couldn’t save the Tatler.

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