I’ve got to mention The Centre Players. They were a group of Granada employees who’d got together to perform at The Stables Theatre in the mid-‘70s. I produced two productions there with the Players: Old Time Musical 1974 and the following year, Whatever Happened to Pantomime? Peter Moran was our magician and the barbershop quartet was Roy Jackson, Stu Darby, Howard Arundel and Alan Clayton. Dave Warwick, the director, was on piano, and our personnel manager, Bob Connell, was on drums.
It started at about ‘68, ’69, and the theatre was empty, and The Centre Players put on quite a few productions there. They put on plays and then the two that I was involved in was light entertainment, was an old time musical and Whatever Happened to Pantomime? which was a skit on all the terrible jokes that you get in pantomime. And it just went on and on and on. The Stables of course, at the bar in front of the Stables Theatre, many happy evenings after working were spent there. Sidney had a policy of no alcohol on the premises, but reluctantly, after much pressure, allowed the Stables Bar to operate as a Granada TV Bar because it wasn’t technically on the premises.
