By Help us complete the Who’s Who in this photograph
Frank Norman with five actors, including Dudley Sutton, rehearsing 'Fings ain't wot they used t'be'
by Ida Kar
NPG x129544
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Can you help us complete the Who’s Who in this photograph by Ida Kar? It shows a group of actors rehearsing at the Theatre Royal Stratford in 1959 for the Cockney musical comedy Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be. Standing to the right is Frank Norman who wrote the play; seated beside him is Dudley Sutton who died last week. We think the actor standing in the middle looking down is James Booth, but who is the actor between him and Yootha Joyce? Finally, who is the man with glasses on the left – could this be Lionel Bart, who wrote the music for Norman’s play?
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Meredith Gurr
28 April 2019, 15:18
The man with glasses on the left is definitely Lionel Bart. Scroll down to the photo of Barbara Windsor and Lionel Bart sitting on the floor. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084985/Lionel-Barts-greatest-success-Oliver-destroyed-From-cocaine-cheap-vodka.html
It may be Tamba Allen (mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be) to the right of Yootha Joyce.
I don't think the other actor is James Booth. Scroll down to the second and third photos in the first row, with James Booth wearing a hat (2nd) and the other actor (3rd). http://overtures.org.uk/?p=17298
Also see the second photo here, with James Booth, again wearing a hat. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2014/may/29/fings-aint-wot-they-used-tbe-stratford-east-in-pictures
I checked all the male names mentioned in the Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be Wikipedia entry, but no luck.