I'm TV star Les Dennis and tonight I come to Lancashire with Ghost The Musical

Legendary TV presenter, actor and comic Les Dennis takes to the Winter Garden’s Opera House stage tonight in Ghost The Musical.

The hit musical is in Blackpool between Tuesday, December 3 and Saturday, December 7 with the seaside town marking the tour’s final hoorah for 2024.

Before travelling up to Lancashire, scouser Les - who is best known for presenting Family Fortunes for 15 years- sat down for a chat with our celebritiy reporter to talk all about the show and of course Blackpool, which included him sharing many fond memories...

How are you feeling about being part of the Ghost the Musical cast?

“I love it. It's a lovely cast, very, very talented ensemble and great principles. We have Josh St Clair playing Sam, who everybody knows from the movie was Patrick Swayze; we have the lovely Rebekah Lowings as Molly and Jackie Dubois is brilliant as Oda Mae - Whoopi Goldberg's character. And ,yeah, I'm just having a great time. I've done a lot of musicals with a lot of different companies, but this one's really quite special.”

How would you describe the show?

“If you love the movie then you're seeing that story really told beautifully but also with the addition of lovely songs written by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Glen Ballard for the film as well as, very importantly Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers.”

Who are you playing and why did you go for that role?

“I play two roles! If you remember the movie, there's a point where Sam has been murdered but he's in denial and he suddenly finds himself in the hospital emergency room as his body is being taken into the emergency room, and there's a little guy sitting there who we then realise is a ghost and so my character is called in the script ‘hospital ghost’. I’m there to tell him that he is dead and I have a lovely song called ‘You got to let go now’ in which I tell him ‘sorry mate but you've got a tag on your toe, you're cold now,’ so yeah it's a fun part to play.

“And then in the second act, I play - again, if you remember the movie, Oda Mae and Sam go to the bank to get this ten million dollar check out, and the banker, Lyle Ferguson is the part I play in that. I have a lovely scene with Sam, although I can't actually relate to him because I don't see him, where it's me and Oda Mae.”

How are you feeling about bringing it to Blackpool?

“I’m looking forward to it, absolutely, because I know Blackpool so well. I used to go as a kid and see all the summer shows, and want to be there. I actually did my first summer season with the Black Abbots in 1979 on the North Pier, and then, of course, I did it with Dustin in ‘85 so I've got fond memories. I want to visit the Comedy Carpet again and find myself and find Dustin!”

Will you get up to anything else whilst up in Blackpool?

“Well, I'm gonna stay in Blackpool. Maybe my friend Sherry Hewson, she still lives in Lytham, so I might see her and certainly just catch up with friends. The problem is we do two shows on the Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday so there's only Friday to do something really but I am looking forward to coming back.”

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You mentioned you visited Blackpool as a child, can you recall any specific memories?

“Yeah, I can just remember being on the beach, walking the pier, going with my mum to see a famous gypsy- Petulengro I think. And of course, I remember seeing Freddie Star at the North Pier, and, yeah, enjoying that twice nightly kind of excitement of walking down the pier either for the first show or second show. That went on then into me doing those shows and I used to love that walk down the North pier to do the shows too. So yeah, it’s absolutely full circle to be back performing in Blackpool.”

What are Blackpool audiences usually like?

“Oh, the audiences in Blackpool are great. I remember with excitement doing those shows, with Dustin at the North Pier and how great it was. I'm really looking forward to Blackpool audiences.”

And why should the people of Lancashire get tickets to see you in Blackpool?

“Because it’s a great show! I'm not on the poster and I'm not kind of advertised as being in the show so it's lovely when I make my appearance, and I can hear people go, ‘Oh, that's exciting’. And at the end - they're two cameos that I play, just, tiny roles in the first half and the second half- but they certainly make an impression.

“Anybody that loved the film will love this show. I often see guys in the audience going ‘eugh I’ve been dragged here by my wife’ and at the end, they're the ones that are in tears. It really is a moving show and it's such an important show in the sense that anybody who's lost somebody- and we all have- it's a lovely kind of hymn to how we deal with loss and I think at the end, people are really touched. They've had a great time, they've watched the thriller, they've watched great songs, they've watched great comedy and at the end, they're really moved by this story of Sam. You know how he's moving on to wherever he's going.”

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Have you got anything else in the pipeline to mention to our Lancashire audiences?

“If anybody in Blackpool wants to make the short trip to Liverpool next year, they can see me at the Royal Court from the middle of March to the middle of April, in an exciting new show called Red or Dead, which is the Bill Shankley story. It's a new play based on the book by David Peace, who wrote the Damn United about Brian Clough as well. Very excitingly, Peter Mullen, the wonderful Scottish actor, is going to be playing Bill Shankly.

“So that's my next project and if you're interested in Liverpool Football Club or interested in seeing a great play about a wonderful manager, then maybe that's a trip worth doing.”