#(the bna have put some 1970s & 80s Manchester Evening Newses on & the result even on a brief browse through was a Maxwell goldmine.)

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, to be "Mr Manchester" who just used to casually run into James Maxwell "most evenings" in 1986. (Courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive & the Manchester Evening News).

"Whom do I see strolling through Manchester late on most evenings but James Maxwell, actor and artistic director, whose craggy features are well-known through countless film, television and stage roles.

"I walk home from work at the Royal Exchange Theatre to my urban paradise," he explains, "paradise" being a flat above the Arndale Centre.

"I love it," he says, "but no one living there can be accused of having a morbid interest in old architecture."

One of his many showbiz tales is of when he was in a show at Manchester Opera House in 1953. The scenery didn't work - in fact, some of it fell down - and the distinguished knight playing the lead not only didn't know his lines; at times he didn't know when he had to speak.

The audience was cool, to say the least, and at the end the knight decided he should speak to them.

"I apologise for the mistakes duing the evening," he announced grandly, "but I assure you that everything will be put right by the time we open in London."

& Mr Manchester, at the G-Mex, "jokingly suggested this wasn't [James Maxwell's] kind of theatre.

His instant retaliation would have gladdened G-Mex boss Tony Harrison, sitting along my row. "No, It's everyone's theatre," he retorted.