This Is Your Life: John Gregson

John GREGSON (1919-1975)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Gregson, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while having a drink with friends in his local pub, The King's Head in Shepperton.

John, who was born in Liverpool, began performing in amateur dramatics while working as a clerk in the Highways department of the Liverpool Corporation. After serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he joined Liverpool Old Vic Company before working in repertory at Perth Theatre. In 1947, he moved to London for stage work and was soon taking bit parts in films.

He signed a contract with the Rank Organisation and appeared in films such as Scott of the Antarctic and Angels One Five. He was also a regular with Ealing Studios, appearing in Whiskey Galore and The Lavender Hill Mob. In 1953, he was cast in the comedy Genevieve in a role which made him a star, and he went on to play leading roles in films such as Above Us The Waves and The Battle of the River Plate.

"Well, now! Maybe a glass of dry white wine?"

programme details...

Edition No: 358
Subject No: 359
Broadcast date: Wed 25 Apr 1973
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 14 Mar 1973 3.15pm
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 13
Edition: 24

on the guest list...

Thea - wife
Nicky - son
Cathy - daughter
Johnny - son
Jim - son
Mary - daughter
Sally - daughter
Dinah Sheridan
Ernest - brother
Chris - sister
Stella - sister
John Farrell
Margaret Roberts
David Stewart
Alfred Marks
Joe Baker
Leslie Phillips
Peggy Cummins
Dick Wilson
Petula Clark
Russell Walters
Capt Frederick Bell

production team...

Researcher: unknown
Writer: unknown
Director: Margery Baker
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

with thanks to John Gregson for his contribution to this page

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Petula Clark

Alfred Marks

Dinah Sheridan

Photographs of John Gregson This Is Your Life

Newspaper article - unknown source: John Gregson This Is Your Life

Unknown source 26 April 1973

John's 'Life' was saved by his wife

by Arthur Johnson

A nun who has been in an enclosed order in Reading for 45 years almost stopped the screening of last night's This Is Your Life show, featuring Liverpool-born actor John Gregson.

Two days before the show was recorded, a letter arrived at John's Thames-side home in Shepperton from his sister Molly, who entered the Carmelite order when her brother was only eight.

The letter was addressed to John, but his wife Thea feared it might contain something about the following day's big surprise - so she opened it.

"It was a good job I did," said Thea later.

"Molly did not understand the full background to the show and she was writing telling John she had been approached by Thames Television."

"If it had reached him Thames would have called the show off and all the secrecy would have been for nothing."

John's brother and sisters on Merseyside had all kept the secret within the family. The last place they expected a leak to come from was their sister in Reading.

"We were all so glad that Thea opened that letter," said one of John's sister, Mrs Stella Johnson, of Morningside, Crosby.

"We had all been living on pins for days before the show, and it would have been terrible to have it called off at the last minute."

With Mrs Johnson on the show were John's elder brother Ernest, of Alexander Drive, Aigburth, and his sister, Mrs Chris Bird, of Limeade Road, Mossley Hill.

Anyone who says the subject of the show knows he is going to be featured in advance should try and live with the secret for a few days.

"It really is tough," said Thea Gregson. "There were so many friends I wanted to tell but I couldn't."

There are six Gregson children in the family and the two youngest, Sally, aged seven, and Mary, aged eight, were not told until the day of the recording.

"We decided it would be best to tell them they were going off to school as normal," said Thea. "Then when they were in the car, we broke the secret and they were taken off to their eldest sister's home a couple of miles away."

And she had a pretty hard time getting John to the pub where the surprise was to be sprung on him.

"It had all been planned that we were to be there for 12.30 to meet some friends for a lunchtime drink," said Thea. "Then at the last minute the family dog Tango decided to go in the creek at the bottom of the garden for a swim."

"It is all rather muddy there, so the dog came out filthy and John decided it would be a good idea to wash him. There I was watching John hose the dog down at 12.30, knowing that the cameras were waiting for us a couple of hundred yards down the road."

But the people who got the biggest thrill out of the show were almost certainly John's sisters and brother from Liverpool.

"My nerves were in a terrible state for days before the show," said Mrs Bird.

"I only had a couple of lines to say in the end, but they were changed only an hour or two before the recording. Anyway, it all seemed to turn out right in the end and I had a wonderful couple of days."

Young Jimmy, aged 14, was particularly glad that his dad was to be featured that day.

"I got a day off school and there were two exams on," he said. "They gave me an estimated mark for the exams, and I didn't come out too badly."

But the real family party started after the show.

Everyone got together for a drink and something to eat, and then most of the family went off to see John's new play which was only in its second day.

And the celebrations did not stop that night. The following day it was John's birthday.

He dashed back after two performances of his show to buy the family supper in his "local" at Shepperton. And it was the same pub that started the show off, for it was there that he heard those words that so many dream about or dread... "this is your life."

The last one in on the secret

John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan joke about old times as members of John's family look on (left to right): Sally, Cathy, Nicky, Johnny, wife Thea and Jimmy.

Series 13 subjects