by SIR BOB RUSSELL

DID you know three heavyweights of British comedy once performed together in Colchester?

It must have been some show when Bruce Forsyth, Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper performed in the same light entertainment production at the Playhouse theatre.

It wasn't just one performance but a whole week, from Monday, March 8, 1954.

There were two performances each evening, at 6pm and 8.15pm, and, on Easter Monday, there was also a matinee at 2.30pm.

Admission was only five shillings (25p in current coinage) in the front circle and front stalls, with the upper circle priced at two shillings and six old pence (13p) and the back stalls at three shillings and six old pence (18p).

The programme, a single sheet of A4 folded to give four pages, cost three old pennies (1.5p).

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Slapstick - comedy genius Tommy Cooper

At the time, the trio were making their way in the world of entertainment before later becoming three giants of British comedy.

If anyone can remember seeing the show they would now be in their 80s (or more).

Where did Bruce, Benny and Tommy stay during their week in Colchester?

What did they do during the day?

Did they socialise together?

It would be nice to think they visited the castle and other tourist attractions.

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Giants of comedy - Bruce Forsyth, Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper, all of whom went on to enjoy hugely-successful careers, feature in these Playhouse programmes

A collection of programmes from several light entertainment shows from 1950 to 1956 was recently found when Mile End couple Ron and Judith Abbott were going through papers left by Mrs Abbott’s late uncle and aunt.

The programme from March 1954 states that Bruce 'Forsythe' was third on the bill in the first half, styled as “the incredible character”, with “Royal Command performer" Tommy Cooper the last act before the interval.

He was described as “the crazy conjuring star from television”.

Benny Hill – “resident comedian from television’s Showcase” – was the penultimate act in the second half.

Other performers included “dancing dolls” Hazel and Audrey Ross, The Skating Vogues “on the world’s smallest rink”, Mavis Whyte “the tiddly-winky girl”, “aerial thrills” from the Two Mazurs and “music in the air” from The Five Skyliners.

The Playhouse, in St John’s Street, now a popular pub, had opened on March 18 in 1929 for live performances.

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Souvenir edition - this programme features the names of Bruce ‘Forsythe’, Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper

However, in September a year later, it had become a cinema but with the capacity to still have live shows.

So it was during the 1950s that the cinema, one of five in Colchester and owned by the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) chain, also staged live shows for which 18 programmes have survived.

Four years before Bruce Forsyth, Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper trod the boards, two other names later to become famous were bottom of the bill.

The back page of the earliest programme, on May 22, 1950, gave details of “our next big stage attraction” for the week beginning Monday, June 19, 1950.

In small type, it simply said Morecambe and Wise “Fools Rush In” with bigger type for top-of-the-bill “The Royal Command Performance Stars” Wilson, Keppel and Betty.

Gazette:

Schedule - the programme from March 1954 states that Bruce ‘Forsythe’ was third on the bill in the first half, with “Royal Command performer” Tommy Cooper the last act before the interval. He was described as “the crazy conjuring star from television”. Benny Hill – “resident comedian from television’s Showcase” – was the penultimate act in the second half

Two other programmes from 1950 are dated August 14 and October 9.

None of the names featured resonated with me.

Twelve months on, the show on October 29, 1951 included singer Betty Driver, who many years later was a barmaid in the ITV soap Coronation Street.

Also performing was film actor Bernard Miles, billed with some of the films he had appeared in.

There are no programmes from 1952, but there are three for 1953.

The first, from September 7, included Beryl Reid, “the popular radio comedienne”.

The second was the week beginning October 5 and the third that of the 1953 Christmas pantomime – Sinbad the Sailor - “for two weeks only”, commencing on Boxing Day.

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Game for a laugh - Benny Hill

On February 8, 1954 Dorothy Squires – “England’s star singer of popular songs, direct from her radio and TV success in America” – topped the bill.

There are also other programmes from 1954.

On October 25 there was “Cinderella on Ice” and on December 13 comedian Arthur Haynes, “nutty as ever”, before the show concluded with “Wakey! Wakey!” Billy Cotton and his Band.

There are five programmes for 1955, starting on January 31 and featuring “Archie Andrews’ Christmas Party” with Peter Brough.

The show from February 28 had no names I recognised, but that of March 28 had star billing for Alma Cogan, “the singing star from Take It From Here”.

The programme from October 3 had no names known to me.

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Generation Game - former star of stage and screen Bruce Forsyth

The pantomime at Christmas 1955 was “Dick Whittington and his Cat”.

The programme had doubled in size to eight pages, although four of these were advertisements.

One of them was for the London School of Dancing, Colchester, who provided local juveniles appearing in the pantomime

The final programme in the collection of live light entertainment in Colchester from 65 to 71 years ago is for the week beginning February 13, 1956.

No famous names are listed in that one.

What these programmes reveal is a time when live entertainment in Colchester included a variety of performers, mostly unknown today, but among them several who were or who became stars in the world of showbusiness.

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Home of live entertainment - The Playhouse

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