Your Stories

This page is for your stories. Here on the Are You Being Served? Fansite we would like to know if you have had the pleasure of meeting any of the cast members or received a letter from the cast members from this show. We want to know every detail. If you have a picture of you and your star then please upload it in the Your Stories Picture Gallery with a caption. You can fill us in on your stories by filling in the table below. Please fill it in with size 14 and Garamond. You can write in whatever colour you like. You need to be a member of Wetpaint to use this.

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Well look at this I am the first person to fill this part in. In November it is my birthday but for my birthday present I am going to see a show in London's West End in September. It aint just any show. It is a once in a life time show and the only time this show will be happening. It is the John Inman Tribute Show. I am extremely excited and I can't wait to go. I will fill you in on everything that happens in the show. The show also stars several former colleges of John and his friend Danny Le Rue.

So I shall tell you about it...soon

Rachie (Site Owner)

On Sunday 30th September 2007 me and my friend left the house in the morning to make the very short trip into Soho Central London. The reason being...we both had tickets to go and see the John Inman Tribute Show at 7:30pm at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue.

After making a small stop to pick up film for the camera we headed off around London our first stop was to get lunch - we were very hungry - then off to Golders Green in the afternoon. I have always loved Golders Green and I intend to live there one day. The reason for going there this time instead of house hunting was to pay a visit to the cremetorium in Hoop Lane. I love the cremetorium there. It is extremely quiet and it was were the ceremony for Mr Inman's funeral was held so to us it felt important to go there and pay our respects by wondering around the garden's.
We spent just over two hours there - believe me you wouldn't realise.

We then returned to Soho and paid an extremely short visit to Oxford Street before heading off to China Town for dinner. At 7:00pm we left the resturant and wondered around for a quarter of a hour before moving to the Lyric Theatre.

We arrived and our jaws dropped. The foye was packed with people who were dressed up to the nine's. We looked at ourselves and felt out of place. Although we were not scruffy (we were smart/casual) we were not wearing suits. We did feel a tad daft but we decided that we shouldn't worry because we were all there for the same reason - to pay tribute.

We went through the doors where our tickets were ripped, we payed for programmes (it was actualy a donation for charity) and went down to the ground floor and waited in the bar for five minutes before entering the auditorium.

I shall now describe the stage because I didn't take a picture of it. Due to the fact that we were on the floor seats meant that we had perfect view of the stage. The Lyric Theatre normally plays host to the West End version of Cabaret but you wouldn't think this. The set for Cabaret had been pushed to the back of the stage and a large black curtain fell to the floor in front of it. A screen was hanging down in front of the curtain with a picture of Mr Inman on it stating "King Rat; John Inman 1993". Below on the stage stood a band. That was all of the set simple but effective.

Whilst we were waiting in our seats we watched others around us. We started to feel very strange. It appears that everyone seems to know each other. It was then I realised that in the ground floor seats there were no members of the public. I started to recognise several faces, members of his family (including that of Mr Lynch who I had met a few months previously) and his friends. It seems that me and my friend had made a mistake. All the members of the public were on the floors above us. At that point there was no point on dwelling on that the show had started.

Wendy Richard who was close friends with Mr Inman walked out onto the stage to welcome the audience and give a short talk. She spoke of Mr Inman in brief but happy terms before introducing Mr Johnny Cash. Mr Cash did an extremely funny segmant of stand up before Miss Richard came back on stage to introduce the next act.

He was a Tenor Opera singer (I can not remember his name I left the programme behind) and sang a sensational version of a song that Pavarotti had once sung before turning around and saluted the picture of Mr Inman behind him.

More to come...

Okay, I have been working so hard that I have not managed to update. The Tenor was amazing. He got such a massive cheer and it was well deserved.

Trevor Bannister then strolled onto the stage looking very well indeed. He came on to make an introduction (after a feww jokes) for Johnny Moore. Johnny Moore is an impressionist and he did a very good Frank Sinartra. This was shortly followed by Rose-Marie who sang and then introduced Jess Conrad who appeared in a one off episode of AYBS? and then remained firm friends with Mr Inman.

It was then time for the finale and what a finale this was. This man did not need any introductions whatsoever. He was the sensational Danny La Rue who recieved a standing olvation for his singing performances. He was on the stage for a good twenty minutes. He finished with (I think) Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Interval...during the interval we remained in the auditiorium as we had no intention to leave. A man sat next to me (I did not get his name) then spoke to me.

'How did you know John?' he asked politely
'I didn't' I replied
'You didn't!' he proclaimed 'Then how come you are able to sit in the stalls? They were reserved for the people he
knew'
'I know. They told my dad that but he quoted my Equity number to them and they obliged with stall seats' I said.

For those who do not know, I am an actress and Equity is the actors union which all performers have to be a member of.

'Well you must be exceptionally talented to be on Equity so young' he said
'Thank you' I said.

We then had a conversation and he told me about conventions they had both been to and the sorts of things John Inman used to get up too. He then invited me to the 'Carry On' Convention that was happening the following year.

The second act commences. The only people who I knew here were Jean Ferguson (currently appearing in 'The Last of the Summer Wine' with Frank Thornton) who read a poem about the last day she saw Mr Inman, Frank Thornton who introduced the comic genious Bobby Davro. The stage hands told Frank Thornton that they had given him a microphone to use and he turned around and said

'Oh! That is what that is for! I wondered why you gave it too me'
'Use it!' They bellowed off stage.
'I don't need to use it!' he said 'I am an actor and I project my voice so therefore I do not need this'

It was so funny! He got a round of applause. The thing is he never used the microphone once and even though we were quite a way back in the stalls I could hear every word he said. Apparently we found out after the show the people high up could hear. Genious!

Davro rounded off the show by singing Frank Sinartra impressions and Tom Jones impressions which were fantastic.

I tell you now that that night was one of the best nights out I have ever had. It was money well spent and I will certainly remember this night for the rest of my life.

Rachie
(Site Owner)

Rachael-Mary	Latest page update: made by Rachael-Mary , Oct 2 2009, 1:44 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Site Revamp - Rachael-Mary 1 word added 1 word deleted view changes - complete history)
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