Star qualifiers for Blackpool bill-toppers were Frank Ifield - the singer with the built-in yodel - and Preston born John Inman

A kitchen table "committee" faced the problem and chose 21 acts for a mention in our A to Z series.

Moving on to the letter I, the committee took the week off. There were only two star qualifiers, John Inman and Frank Ifield!

Comic actor John Inman (1935- 2007) is first on by virtue of being Preston-born with several theatre credits just down the road in Blackpool.

John also had a good anecdote. In May, 1962, he was the stage manager with the Peter Haddon Players, and understudying the male actors, when he heard the company manager's dreaded words: "Our leading man isn't well - you're on!" The play was Terence Rattigan's When the Sun Shines.

Career breaks were slow in the 60s, with fewer tours of regional theatres as television attracted the patrons.

John Inman's next Blackpool visit was in 1964, when he had a small part in the final tour of the musical Salad Days.

He had roles in two of the Grand Theatre's summer season comedy plays, in 1969 and 72, and soon after that second season he went into the TV sitcom Are You Being Served, as Mr "I'm free" Humphries.

He was one of the stars in the stage version of the TV comedy for the 1976 summer season at the Winter Gardens Pavilion.

John finally topped the bill in a Blackpool season in 1980's Fancy Free at the ABC Theatre and was one of the stars of the Grand's year 2000 season show.

Frank Ifield, the singer with the built-in yodel, had an amazing run of chart-toppers before he starred in the 1964 summer season show at the ABC.

Looking back several decades, a reminder is necessary that Frank came close to having five consecutive Number Ones.

Born in Coventry in 1937, Frank spent 14 years in Australia with his family before he returned to Britain and worked the cabaret clubs before his hit records.

He had three chart-toppers - I Remember You, Lovesick Blues and The Wayward Wind - but his next disc, Nobody's Darlin' But Mine, stalled at number four in April, 1963. Two months later he was top again with Confessin' (That I Love You).

The singer came to Blackpool to star in the 1964 summer season show at the ABC and threw himself into a round of publicity inspired by theatre manager Bob Parsons, although the handsome, fair-haired Frank needed no help in getting a reaction from female fans.

The season, with Kathy Kirby also on the bill, was a triumph and Frank also starred in the first of the Blackpool Night telecasts from the ABC on Sunday, July 5.

In August, however, Frank became one of the many vocalists to be silenced by the resort's bracing air. He had laryngitis for 10 days and again during his second ABC season in 1967 and he had to leave the show for the last two weeks.

Frank played his third Blackpool season in 1984, in the newly opened Sandcastle Centre.