Noël Coward Comes to Blackpool

Noël Coward had a notable connection with Blackpool, particularly with the Grand Theatre. He first came to Blackpool in October 1942 to present his “Play Parade” featuring “Present Laughter”, “Blithe Spirit”, and “This Happy Breed” at the Blackpool Grand Theatre. This was part of his wartime tour of Britain. Amongst many other things, Coward was also a donor at Blackpool’s St Stephen’s on-the-Cliffs Church.

Though not taken in Blackpool, this terrific photo shows Coward with Norman Hackforth at the piano, performing for sailors aboard HMS Victorious in Ceylon, August 1944. It was taken by a Royal Navy official photographer – from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.

With the outbreak of the Second World War Coward abandoned the theatre and sought official war work. After running the British propaganda office in Paris, where he concluded that “if the policy of His Majesty’s Government is to bore the Germans to death I don’t think we have time”, he worked on behalf of British intelligence. His task was to use his celebrity to influence American public and political opinion in favour of helping Britain. He was frustrated by British press criticism of his foreign travel while his countrymen suffered at home, but he was unable to reveal that he was acting on behalf of the Secret Service. In 1942 George VI wished to award Coward a knighthood for his efforts, but was dissuaded by Winston Churchill. Mindful of the public view of Coward’s flamboyant lifestyle, Churchill used as his reason for withholding the honour Coward’s £200 fine for contravening currency regulations in 1941.

Had the Germans invaded Britain, Coward was scheduled to be arrested and killed, as he was in The Black Book along with other figures such as Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C. P. Snow and H. G. Wells. When this came to light after the war, Coward wrote: “If anyone had told me at that time I was high up on the Nazi blacklist, I should have laughed … I remember Rebecca West, who was one of the many who shared the honour with me, sent me a telegram which read: ‘My dear – the people we should have been seen dead with’.”

Winston Churchill’s view was that Coward would do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front than by intelligence work: “Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that’s your job!” Coward, though disappointed, followed this advice. He toured, acted and sang indefatigably in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. He wrote and recorded war-themed popular songs, including “London Pride” and “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”. His London home was wrecked by German bombs in 1941, and he took up temporary residence at the Savoy Hotel. During one air raid on the area around the Savoy he joined Carroll Gibbons and Judy Campbell in impromptu cabaret to distract the captive guests from their fears. Another of Coward’s wartime projects, as writer, star, composer and co-director (alongside David Lean), was the naval film drama In Which We Serve. The film was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, and he was awarded an honorary certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony. Coward played a naval captain, basing the character on his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten. Lean went on to direct and adapt film versions of three Coward plays.

Coward’s most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful black comedy Blithe Spirit (1941), about a novelist who researches the occult and hires a medium. A séance brings back the ghost of his first wife, causing havoc for the novelist and his second wife. With 1,997 consecutive performances, it broke box-office records for the run of a West End comedy, and was also produced on Broadway, where its original run was 650 performances. The play was adapted into a 1945 film, directed by Lean. Coward toured during 1942 in Blithe Spirit, in rotation with his comedy Present Laughter and his working-class drama This Happy Breed.

Noël Coward Today at The Grand

Blackpool Grand Theatre has a recurring connection to Noël Coward through the production of the “Noël & Gertie” show. Step into the wonderfully witty world of Noël Coward at The Grand this Autumn with the heartfelt musical tribute Noël & Gertie and the devilishly funny comedy Blithe Spirit.

© The Grand Theatre – Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit presented by Wiltshire Creative, Blackpool Grand Theatre and Lee Dean is at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Tuesday 28 October to Saturday 1 November 2025 with matinee and evening performances.

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