Alan Durband pounds by means of innovative seven-year tax-free covenants for the conversion of the building. It was a popular theatre specialising in local Liverpool settings & political subjects which gave opportunities to new playwrights – most famous of whom is probably Willy Russell (to whom Durband lent his Welsh cottage to write 'Educating Rita') and to actors such as: Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce & Julie Walters who joined the Theatre company around 1975. To mark this era, Willy Russell unveiled a plaque in memory of Alan Durband at the theatre in 1998 in the company of actor Pete Postlethwaite
Lewis Gilbert Lewis Gilbert Lewis Gilbert (6 March 1920 – 23 February 2018) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter, who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as "Reach for the Sky" (1956), "Sink the Bismarck!" (1960), "Alfie" (1966), "Educating Rita" (1983) and "Shirley Valentine" (1989), as well as three James Bond films: "You Only Live Twice" (1967), "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) and "Moonraker" (1979). Lewis Gilbert was born in Hackney, London, to a second-generation family of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, Ada (Griver), who