I have said this before, and probably will say it again, but I have been so fed up with listening to the Radio News either on the BBC or LBC with it’s doom laden bulletins and phone-ins that I have changed to listening in the car to a lot of Radio Plays – Full Cast type CDs rather than a book being read.

So have gone from Agatha Christie and The Pale Horse, to Sexton Blake, Paul Temple – and now Lord Peter Wimsey which stars Ian Carmichael in the role he fits so well. He played Lord Peter on Television and then produced the same stories on Radio – now released on CD.

They are really good and fascinating stories.

Before this, and back into the Fifties Ian Carmichael played in many British films of the day, often as upper class twits who come good in the end – and also have an appealing streak in them

It was the film version of his first stage success, Simon and Laura (1955) which established Ian Carmichael on the screen. The following year his portrayal of an artful conscripted dodger in the Boultings’ comedy Private’s Progress endeared him to everyone who had ever been called up and the character returned, fleetingly, in I’m All Right, Jack (1959). In this picture he had just been demobbed and, in looking for work, became caught in a wrangle between capitalists and trades unionists from which he emerged, inadvertently, triumphant.
Meanwhile there had been the title role in the not-very-successfully filmed Kingsley Amis novel Lucky Jim. Then came Happy Is The Bride, a Boultings’ comedy about rural society weddings.

In School for Scoundrels (1960) he attended an academy to learn how to shed his gentlemanly inhibitions in order to compete for a young lady’s hand, and then in Heavens Above (1963) he played a confused cleric in a Boultings’ satire about the Church.

ABOVE – Ian chatting away on the set of the film ‘Brothers In Law

On Talking Pictures at the weekend was ‘Left Right and Centre’ a British Comedy with Ian cast as the Conservative candidate in a by election who arrives by train and on the journey becomes somewhat taken with a very pretty girl – as she does with him. Trouble is she turns out to be the Labour Candidate in the same by election. They have fallen in love with each other, so the film has a happy ending despite a number of bumpy moments along the way.

Much later we all remember him as the Doctor in one episode of Heartbeat in 2003 before he then went on to play the same role Dr T.D. Middlewitch in The Royal – and he was in 28 episodes between 2003 and 2009. In fact the very last episode he had made was on Television in 2009 – and he had actually died before this was shown.

He did live up in that area of North Yorkshire where Heartbeat and The Royal was set – in fact in Grosmont – for quite a few years

These advertisements are scanned from the Picturegoer Magazine dated 7 April 1951

This magazine along with Picture Show was weekly and was full of reviews of the new releases as well as articles on films and film stars.

It was a way of getting to know what was happening on the silver screen – the cinema at that time, was a really good night out and people would go probably twice a week – so it was big business for the film makers, distributors and the thousands of cinema owners world wide.

I think I have mentioned before that in the 1951 F.Maurice Speed Western Film Annual there were 107 Western films released that year – incredible at more than two per week. Maybe a lot of them would be supporting films no doubt but nevertheless the Hollywood Studios were churning them out at this sort of rate

Vengeance Valley – Robert Walker and Joanne Dru both very good – Burt Lancaster – well he was good in his early acrobatic roles – if slightly over the top, but in later roles I am not so sure.

The stories of him threatening Film Directors does not sit easy with me.

Once such example was with Michael Winner the British film Director :

Burt Lancaster had a volatile temper, and on a mountainous filmset during the making of Lawman he attacked Michael Winner over some trifle. ‘You ****** moron, don’t you dare ******  tell me what to do!’ He grabbed Michael Winner and threatened to throw him off a 1,000-foot cliff. ‘

After recovering from the attack he was consoled by someone who knew Lancaster well. ‘It was a very good sign. Burt only threatens to kill his friends.’

ABOVE – I would have gone to see this one ABOVE because it had Victor Mature in the lead role – I have to say again though, that this is a film I can’t remember ever having seen

The advertisements BELOW were not featured in this magazine but were released sometime in 1951

Interesting to see that, at the time of the release of Iron man Jeff Chandler was quite a big star and this film also had Evelyn Keyes and Stephen McNally – both experienced and seasoned players – but Rock Hudson was not known and he comes a little way down the cast list

ABOVE – As the advertisement says ‘ This is the Big One’ and I suppose it was in 1951 – very colourful and spectacular – with a brilliant performance by Peter Ustinov

The ABOVE is a Musical that I like – I also like the 1935 version with Paul Robeson in fact I think I preferred that one

ABOVE – The F.Maurice Speed Western Annual for 1951 which is referred to in this article.

This is something of an unusual article because it features a castle in North Wales that has not been used in a film to my knowledge but surely it should have been – it just lends itself perfectly to such a use.

Way back in the early Sixties, I was on holiday staying in Abergele and we visited this castle which has always stuck in my mind because of it’s stunning location. At that time it was open as a Castle to visit with a tour round parts of it, as I remember. I was impressed.

One thing that did stick with me is being told that it had been used by boxer Randolph Turpin when he trained for his famous fight against Sugar Ray Robinson in 1953.

When you look at the above picture, you can almost see it as Castle Dracula – just a perfect location, and I am so surprised, and have been over the years, that this has never been used.

I have now realised on looking further that there have been films that have used the Castle – Prince Valiant in 1997 and Holiday on The Buses in 1970. Although I know and like the 1954 version of Prince Valiant with Robert Wagner and James Mason, I was not aware of this later one at all.

‘Holiday on the Buses’, I do know and have watched it many times with my children when they were small – and I liked it too. I think a Holiday Camp at Prestatyn, nearby, was used.

We now learn though – and this news may have sparked my memory of this place – and hence this article – that the castle will be used as the location for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here – the TV show that attracts millions of viewers and is usually located in Queensland Australia, close to where my daughter lives. Due to Coronovirus, the show had to be re-planned and re-located and Grwych Castle has been chosen.

So although I am surprised that this has not been used more in films, it seems that fame will come to the Castle via a most unexpected turn of events – I have a feeling this will put the Castle ‘on the map’

I have not seen this film but this is a review I read that makes me want to see it. In fact it is a film I had never heard of until I was browsing information on actor Bruce Bennett ( formerly Herman Brix ) who had played Tarzan in one or more films in the Thirties – and apparently played him well. Anyway back to this one, and it does seem that Bruce Bennett just knew that his performance would have to be outrageous to make the film both entertaining and watchable.

Bruce Bennett wrote the screenplay for this film as well as playing the starring role. Here is that Review :

Wow! What a bad and yet at the same time awesome film experience. The acting is so-over-the-top, the storyline so twisted, and the mood, tone, and pace so depraved, that I honestly can say that I have never seen anything quite like this. For many, that will be good news if they can say the same!

Don’t get me wrong, Fiend of Dope Island is an atrocious film. It has awful acting, no special effects, and has a story with little merit or any redeeming qualities. It is; however; a fun bad film to watch and has perhaps one of the most outrageous performances I have seen in Dope island dictator Bruce Bennett who runs his island whipping natives and friends alike any time they don’t move fast enough for him or displease him in some way – which it seems is all the time as he is always drunk.

Charlie Davis (Bruce Bennett) is a psychotic man who owns an island in the Carabean where he whips and treats everyone there like slaves. One day a boat comes by and a beautiful dancer is on board and Charles sets his attention to her, which causes a mutiny.

THE FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND is a pretty bad film if you want to be a snob and look at it as something it’s not. If you’re wanting a good looking, Oscar-winning film then this here certainly isn’t going to be for you. The film is actually very fast-paced and it is good entertainment

The highlight is without question the insane and way over-the-top performance of Bruce Bennett. I’m going to say he probably watched several Bela Lugosi movies when he was younger and perhaps he realised that everything about the film was bad that he hammed it up for some entertainment. It’s his nutty performance that makes the film worth watching and it was really fun seeing and hearing his insane laughing and non-stop rants. Tania Velia does a nice job in her role of the dancer.

The film has many campy moments but there’s no question that it’s one of the more outrageous and over-the-top adventure films ever made. The “dope” connection isn’t played up as much as you might imagine it would be but this is still a fun film if as you don’t take it too seriously – and I don’t see how you possibly could.

This is a film that I really like. Not at all well known and a supporting picture at that running just 68 minutes

It starts out looking like a run-of-the-mill Western but changes into a very different kind of film. Raymond Burr plays a real ‘baddie’ here and is not that good but the rest of the cast do well. Another unusual aspect is that the one or two of the characters seem to turn out different to what we might first think – an apparently good man turns out to be anything but.

Lance Fuller ABOVE

Lance Fuller and Susan Cummings

The best part of the film was a sequence taken directly from Lust for Gold 1949 where the Indians attack gold prospectors in a remote valley many years before. Very much a studio set but extremely well done with production quality well ahead of the rest of the film.

Wiilliam Prince had also been in ‘Lust for Gold’ seven years earlier – and he alos has a leading role in this one

Interesting to note that the Englishman that played Valerie French’s father in the film was Reginald Sheffield who was the father of Johnny and Billy Sheffield who were boy stars in films – Johnny playing Boy in the Tarzan films and later Bomba The Jungle Boy. I well remember seeing this film as a youngster and somehow the plot has always stayed with me – and on seeing it again last evening – the main elements that had stuck in my mind were there. I had remembered a search for the Braganza crosses – small metal crosses – that if found would lead to the famous Braganza treasure in Treasure Mountain. I have looked for the name Braganza before – and not been able to find it – and thought I had this wrong but I was pretty sure I had it right – and so it proved to be the case. The production values of the film were not top class by any means but the flashback sequence to the man who had discovered the treasure 200 years earlier when the Indians attacked and killed the searchers and Braganza himself in the cave was very well done – these scenes were pinched for an earlier film Lust for Gold with Glenn Ford.

William Prince as Robert Kendall and Valerie French together ABOVE

ABOVE – Having found the Second Braganza Cross, Robert Kendall tires to work out the significance of the Snake Rock Formation

He stands inside the rock formation and gradually sees – ABOVE

The shadow of him with his arms outstretch forms the third Braganza Cross – ABOVE

Valerie French looks up at the rock ABOVE

ABOVE and BELOW Robert Kendall fights with Raymond Burr who falls to his death from the rocks down a sheer drop, hundreds of feet to the floor of the valley

Lance Fuller ABOVE – half Indian and he guards the treasure we learn as the film unfolds

They all leave the valley home at the end of the film

The story about Arizona’s Lost Dutchman Gold Mine is well known. It fires up the imagination, the various clues to its location and the lore going with it. Columbia used the material twice: the first in 1949’s Lust for Gold with an A-list production, at least for that budget-minded studio. This film is the second, but generally inferior to the first.

Nonetheless, production does a good job here with staging desert sequences, especially Robert Kendall’s clambering search for the third gold cross. It is a diverse group (Prince, Burr) has come together at a desert cabin where an old man (Sheffield), his daughter (French), an Indian girl (Cummings), and a half-breed (Fuller) live.

The film is visually entertaining with a generally unpredictable storyline that manages a few twists. The package may not equal the 1949 version, but this is a good enjoyable film with some of the exterior filming excellent.

It has taken a long time searching for this film but I now have it and have seen it again – and in point of fact, I have not just got the DVD but have acquired, some time ago, the 16 mm film itself – so I can stage a real film show – might just do that !

Universal bought the story in January 1950. The film was intended to be a vehicle for Yvonne de Carlo. Douglas Fairbanks Jr was sought for the male lead but that role eventually went to Richard Greene, returning to Hollywood after two years in Britain. Jackie Gleason signed to play a comic support role. Universal contract player Rock Hudson, who had just impressed in Winchester 73, was also cast.

Richard Greene was back in Hollywood I think he was still married to Patricia Medina at that time but not for much longer

Richard was approaching the time that he found TV success both sides of the Atlantic with the excellent ‘Robin Hood’

Yvonne’s 3 handmaidens were all beautiful, but one in particular, Anne Cramer, looked very much like her. Anne must have been a fascinating person. Later, she attained a PhD in film technology,, and another in literature. She was employed through the years in various aspects of film production – and then switched to psychoanalysis in her retirement years.

The ending is really interesting, when Yvonne and Omar meet after the big battle in ‘The Palace of 1000 Pleasures’, with Omar in chains. Yvonne holds all the cards at this time, and heaps psychological vengeance on Omar, telling him that he may be whipped with 100 lashes, or put on the rack.. Then, she rapidly changes her attitude, to bring him some very good news. During this time, Omar makes some general comments about women: “Be she wench or princess, a woman is only a woman, and always needs a master”. Then he must have thought better of it and came out with “A man should never argue with a woman”.

It’s a almost fairy tale and very much romanticised and Hollywoodised but with above all spectacular clothing and fencing scenes. Almost like a Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino film set in that fantasy world of highly romantic splendour.

Richard Greene as the Desert Hawk is just a dashing adventurer like any pirate – and this is a part he was perfect for – Yvonne de Carlo as the princess.

The colours are also magnificent throughout, this is a dashing costume drama of great swashbuckling and a dazzling extravagance of costumes all the way, and Frank Skinner’s music is first rate.

Great colourful entertainment

Another film on Talking Pictures that I did not know but watching much of it, although the print was not brilliant, the storyline seemed quite absorbing.

Van Johnson and Vera Miles had come over from Hollywood to make this one – they had been here a few years before – to star together in ’23 Paces to Baker Street’ .

There was also a pretty strong cast of top British actors, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen and Emlyn Williams to name but three – also Jean Kent.

In the film Van Johnson had been evacuated from Liverpool to the United States during the Second World War. His mother died young and he is working his way around the world before he settles down to a career in electronics. He doesn’t know what became of his father, so he makes enquiries. He discovers he has been in prison for sixteen years for strangling a young girl. He investigates and finds the official story quite sketchy, and it seems that the officials make it difficult for him to find out more about it.

The the subplot involves Vera Miles, with whom he has fallen in love.

Bernard Lee, later to be ‘M’ in the Bond films is good as Van Johnson’s father, brutalised by years in prison – although I find it hard to take him in this role after seeing the Bond films.

He played quite an uncouth, thuggish character here, which did not suit him – I remember him just before this in a film I like called ‘The Ship that died of Shame’ with Richard Attenborough and George Baker

Emlyn Williams plays a mysterious and creepy man brilliantly. He was a classic stage actor and made quite a few films. He was in Ivanhoe in 1952, and a few years after that The Deep Blue Sea ( a Terence Rattigan play made into a film ) and The Wreck of the Mary Deare

He also played the part of Mr Dick in a film adaptation of David Copperfield – I love the character of Mr Dick – as Aunt Betsy Trotwood says ‘Mr Dick puts us all right

This version had a real star-studded cast resembling a ‘whos who’ of classic British Theatre, film and Television

In this film a character played by Anthony Newlands plays a newspaperman who gets the investigation moving and somehow connects everything together eventually arriving at the truth

Vera Miles, I always like to see in films. She was no stranger to visiting England in the Fifties indeed she came here while Gordon Scott made a Tarzan film – Tarzan and the Lost Safari – mainly at Pinewood – and married him either before the film or shortly after it.

She had played in the previous Tarzan and the two of them became romantically involved during that time – they later married.

Gordon Scott and Vera Miles were married for almost four years. They dated for about a year after getting together in Aug 1954 and married on 14th Apr 1956. Sadly they divorced on 2nd Mar 1960.

American Actor Gordon Scott was born Gordon Merrill Werschkul on 3rd August, 1926 in Portland, Oregon, USA and passed away on 30th Apr 2007 Baltimore, Maryland, USA aged 80. He is most remembered for Tarzan.

Vera Miles was born Vera June Ralston on 23rd August, 1929 in Boise City, Oklahoma, her career from spans 1948–1995.

Her most famous role to me would be in the classic ‘The Searchers’

To sum up this a tense, emotional and very satisfying murder mystery drama, adapted from AJ Cronin’s novel, was only director Jack Cardiff’s second film.

He sustains the suspense throughout by creating an electric atmosphere of corruption in high places and you can sense that just about everyone has something to hide. For example, it transpires that the prosecutor at Mathry’s trial, Sir Matthew Sprott (Ralph Truman), had doubts about the strength of the evidence against him, but he nevertheless employed his considerable skills as a barrister to ensure he got convicted because he didn’t want the embarrassment of losing a case. It would have affected his career progression and, today, he is standing for parliament in a highly publicised by-election. When Paul pushes his way into his office asking a lot of awkward questions about his father, he puts pressure upon the police superintendent to have him confined to his ship until it sets sail for America again because he doesn’t want the scandal and potential mud slinging from political opponents to cost him his election.

The key witness at Mathry’s trial, Louise Birt, the murdered woman’s flat mate, has done very nicely since then owning her own nightclub and bar on New Brighton. Paul suspects that somebody paid her for her testimony and set her up in business as a reward for shielding the real killer.

All of these twists and turns are sufficient to hold an audience’s interest and the performances from the two American leads are quite good too. Van Johnson displays the anguish and passion as Paul Mathry who finds himself battling the city’s establishment to clear his dad’s name and Vera Miles is really effective as his girlfriend. The pair are falling in love with each other, but the relationship is put in jeopardy as a result of an incident in her past that has left her emotionally scarred.

Way back in 1956 we were treated to some excellent Telvision plays and serials – the BBC particularly excelled in the classic serial – and here we have one ‘David Copperfield’

This would be one of the first such serials and as can be seen and from the picture it would seem that the producers had gone to a great deal of trouble in getting the detail right and selecting a suitable location.

This scene is from David’s Wedding so quite late on in the story.

The BBC tended to use Studio sets and ‘live’ programmes which required much rehearsal but the advent of Independent TV saw them have a different approach as they mainly used film for their dramas and then broadcast them later – much as they do now although we are now in a digital world.

After the tremendous success of ‘Robin Hood’ with Richard Greene in the title role, ITV really wanted to capitalise on it’s impact – ‘The Buccaneers‘ was one such attempt but it did not really cut it.

Looking at the picture above – Don’t you think that the man on the right looks like Nick Cravat it isn’t him apparently – but the more I look the more I think it is him and maybe this picture is wrongly captioned

Also we had ‘Sir Lancelot’ with the later episodes of this being filmed in Colour so they work better when seen today – this series is currently showing on Talking Pictures

Of course there was The Adventure of Willam Tell’ and that was good and exciting but still didn’t live up to ‘Robin Hood’ – but the few such programmes did

Errol Flynn, with his own production company made a series of swashbuckling adventure – half hour tales and he would be well suited to this. Maybe his golden era had passed by but he still retained that charisma and stardust that few of the stars had – he had it in abundance.

ABOVE One of those famous stage productions at the Whitehall Theatre with Brian Rix – the BBC regularly brought one of these to the Television screen direct from the Theatre — this one was ‘Jane Steps Out’ with Ann Firbank (left) seemingly caught in an embarrassing situation by Brian Rix’s wife Elspet Gray – his wife in real life too.

He had the long running ‘Dry Rot’ there which ran successfully for years and I have a feeling that this also was shown on Television direct from the Theatre.

I have often wondered why this has not been done much since although in recent times there has been such productions on Television or in the Cinema, come to that. It does to me seem a good way of showing these plays to many of us living outside London – although I do , on occasions go down to see one of them – last time it was ‘The Mousetrap’ – hugely enjoyable.

Peter Cushing ABOVE with Billie Whitelaw in the Thriller ‘Gaslight’

Peter Cushing did a lot of Television drama in those days – just before he got fully into gear with Hammer Films. Billie Whitelaw was at the start of her career here – I liked her and she was around a lot at the time and later

This Production was the last of the BBC Sunday Night Dramas that Peter Cushing did – the most famous being 1984 but he was also in ‘The Creature’ just before this which he later did again on film as ‘The Abominable Snowman.

The same year as Gaslight was ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein’ and Peter Cushing after which he was then in the big league – and it effectively defined his career from that day on.

Here in a scene from the BBC Drama ‘His Excellency’ from 1957, we see a young Shirley Eaton on the Left with Glen Alyn and Donald Pickering.

Donald Pickering went on the play Dr Watson in quite a number of episodes of Sherlock Holmes in 19790 – 1980 and this had Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes. This gets good reviews although I can’t remember it at all. It was a joint Polish / British production filmed in Poland

Glen Alyn pictured above was an Australian actress who had been quite famous in the Thirties. She had married in 1947 but her husband died in 1948 – sounds a very sad story. He was Stanley Joseph Grove – but I have come across papers that indicate his name had been Stanley Joseph Grove Spiro but in 1944 he registered to drop the ‘Spiro’

Glen Alyn’s appearance in ‘His Excellency’ marked her very last appearance on film or television. She returned to Australia and die there in Sydney in 1984

What a Double Feature this would be – almost stretching the word preposterous to it’s limits I reckon

Return of the Fly

As any horror film addict knows, the fly’s head on a human body came about when a scientist perfected the process of transferring matter through space from one place to another and then carelessly got his own molecules mixed up with a fly’s whilst in transit.

In the earlier film ‘The Fly’ the scientist came to a grizzly end but here his son just can’t wait to get going with the whole experiment all over again with the stern disapproval of his Uncle played by Vincent Price.

The old Lab where his father had worked is cleaned up and the machines start whirring again.

Trouble is, as we might have expected the old problem happens again – this time engineered by his crooked assistant.

The rampaging fly is not a pretty sight

Vincent Price is back in action here having starred in the original ‘The Fly’ – and back in similar vein

Then on the same bill, we get The Alligator People

In the film Beverly Garland plays a newlywed wife named Joyce who despairs when her husband (Richard Crane) leaves the train they’re honeymooning on to make an urgent phone call, and then is never heard from again. Desperate, she tries without success to locate him until she eventually gets a lead that he could be at a secluded house somewhere in the swamplands of the Louisiana bayou area

Once there she is made aware of unusual experiments gone awry which involved her husband, and faces the horror that he is gradually turning into a reptilian creature. His mother (Frieda Inescort ) tries to discourage Joyce in her search and at first does not make her welcome.

Beverley Garland ABOVE arrives in Louisiana

Beverley Garland is quite believable and sincere in her part, and this is a nice-looking black and white film shot in the Cinemascope process, showing off some good shots in the land of alligators and snakes.

Also in the cast is none other than Lon Chaney, playing one of the uncouth local Cajun men who sports a hook in place of his left hand, having been a victim himself of an alligator attack.

In his usual drunken state, he carries on a vendetta against all alligators because of his injuries – referring to those “dirty, stinking gators”

He fires his gun at them, and tries to run them down with his jeep when they cross the road.

The scaly makeup for Richard Crane in its early stages is pretty effective, but when he emerges in full alligator-headed form later on, it is less impressive. However we have to remember that this is a ’50s monster film, after all, and many creatures of this era have been bizarre.

Once you get past the initial shock of seeing the Alligator Man, the result actually comes out pretty well.

Also heading the cast in this film is Bruce Bennett who had previously been known as Herman Brix – he played Tarzan in at least one film under that name. When War came he felt that a change of name was required.

I seem to recall he also played in ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ in 1948 and he went on to continue a very busy and successful career for a good many years.

ABOVE and BELOW Richard Crane

Beverley Garland BELOW narrating this strange story.

I remember her being in one of the Bomba films with Johnny Sheffield titles ‘Killer Leopard’ in 1954

Beverley Garland ABOVE narrating this strange story.

Frankie Vaughan went to Hollywood in the late Fifties after he had made a couple of films in England, the first of which was ‘These Dangerous Years’ where he got rave reviews and that was followed up by ‘The Heart of a Man’ which I remember seeing during our St Albans holidays at the time.

He had earlier appeared in Arthur Askey’s comedy Ramsbottom Rides Again (1956) and a musical, The Lady Is A Square, with Anna Neagle.

I had not realised but he was booked to appear in Cabaret at the Dunes in Las Vegas in 1959 where he was to do 28 shows instead of which, he went down so well that the contract was extended to 56 nights

From there he flew to New York to guest star on The Perry Como Show then way back to Los Angeles for the Dinah Shore Christmas Show.

20th Century Fox talent scout Bert Gordon flew in from Hollywood to Las Vegas to watch him in cabaret – and came back raving. The first result of this was that Marilyn Monroe wanted Frankie to star in ‘The Misfits’ written by her then husband Arthur Miller

In the picture ABOVE he appears to be having some coaching on Westerns from a gun slinging expert. He looks the part here.

Well as we look back, we all know that he did not get a part in The Misfits but he did succeed in starring along with Marilyn Monroe in ‘Lets Make Love’ with Yves Montand a year or so later.

Marilyn looks so lovely in the picture BELOW

In 1960, Vaughan went to Hollywood to make the film ‘Let’s Make Love’ with Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn, it is said, tried to entice him into an affair, but he maintained that he loved his wife, Stella, whom he had met at the Locarno ballroom, Leeds, after the war, and that they needed to live in London. He must be one of very few men that had or would turn down Marilyn

Back home and a bit later, he filled the Talk of the Town theatre restaurant for weeks, and became a sort of statesman among British performers. He returned to the venue for years afterwards. In 1965, he was awarded an OBE, and in 1997 a CBE.

In 1985, Vaughan had one of his most notable successes – starring in what turned out to be his swansong role, the lead in the musical 42nd Street at Drury Lane. He left the cast after a year at the start of what turned out to be a terminal series of illnesses. He was always sure of his epitaph. “I am lucky to have a talent, lucky to have met such a wonderful girl as my wife Stella, lucky to have such a wonderful family, and lucky to have a job I adore.”