The event, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was star-studded: Ingrid Bergman, Dirk Bogarde, Terence Rattigan and John Strachey were among those who arrived at the theatre to be greeted with cheers and applause by a crowd of several hundred lining the street.

They had gone to see Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle, Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, Stanley Holloway as Alfred Doolittle and Robert Coote as Colonel Pickering.

Fifty years later when it opens again on Tuesday, April 8, running to Saturday, April 12, at the Todmorden Hippodrome Theatre, Todmorden Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society are not expecting quite the same level of celebrity within its audience, though they are hoping that it will be greeted with the same level of enjoyment!

Alex Scott, John Spooner, Martin Cook, and Kenneth Marshall, all living in Todmorden, and who have all delighted our audiences before, will be performing the roles, said production co-oedinator Sylvia Thomas.

The 1958 show had also attracted the attention of ticket touts for the first time in the West End.

Black-market tickets were selling for almost five times their original prices. There were several incidents between police and touts before the show, and two men were later arrested and charged.

This is one aspect not expected to be repeated in Todmorden where the tickets are on sale for £10 or £12 at Todmorden Tourist Information Centre or by contacting Sylvia on the box office number 087 0770 568.