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Anita Valerie, known as ’Nita Valerie’, was born in 1902 in Preston. Her mother was an operatic soprano and her father an accomplished tenor, she made her first stage appearance at the age of 5. Formerly of the Winter Garden Players in New Brighton, where she worked with amongst others a young Derek Nimmo, she moved to Huddersfield to take over the management of the Theatre Royal in 1954 with her husband Peter Bernard. Throughout the fifties the Theatre Royal Players, under the direction of Miss Valerie, staged a variety of productions ranging from Chekhov and Shakespeare to “Arsenic and Old Lace” and pantomimes such as “Babes in the Wood”. She was also patron of the Young Theatregoers Club, (the Denville Players), whose luminaries included the likes of Jack Woolgar, Roy Barraclough, Thelma Barlow, Eileen Derbyshire, Kenneth Waller, Fred Ferris, et al.. Despite valiant attempts to keep the theatre going and with regular weekly attendances of around 4000 the Theatre Royal closed on a Saturday night in April 1961. Both houses, for a production of “As You Like It”, were full. In the days leading up to the final performance there are been many protests in the streets of Huddersfield, including a march by some 300 or so students carrying a coffin. This demonstration continued into the theatre itself and culminated in a reverent placing of the coffin centre stage whilst a lone trumpeter sounded the Last Post. Even after the closure of the Theatre Royal Nita continued as director of the New Theatre in Venn Street, Huddersfield. Sadly also the New Theatre closed in the early 1970s, becoming at first a Discotheque. Famously Nita Valerie was the first ever Ena Sharples in Coronation Street,, taking the role in the episode, which was never screened. Due to the illness of her husband Peter Bernard, Nita withdrew from the show. Peter Bernard died in 1961. Later she did eventually appear in Corrie in 1966 when she played the part of bolshie cleaner Polly Sagan for a number of episodes in the pre-Mike Baldwin factory (Miami Modes?) where Elsie Tanner was a supervisor. She appeared in many 1960s sitcoms and dramas , including Nearest and Dearest with Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel, and Pardon My Expression with a pre-Dads Army Arthur Lowe and John LeMesurier. She also played Tom Grattan’s mother in the children’s first World War drama series “Tom Grattan’s War”. She died in August 1989, aged 87.

References

The Huddersfield Examiner archives

External links

• example.com