Then there was silence between them for awhile, and Joe went out and heaped more fuel on the grate, while Nelly kept her eyes steadily fixed on the fire. What did the child see as she gazed into its glowing depths? For ever and anon a sweet smile played around the corners of her month, and spread over her pale thoughtful face, lighting it up with ​a wonderful beauty, and smoothing out the lines of care that at other times were only too visible.

Oh, Benny, I see such beautiful pictures in the fire. Don't you 'members on fine days how we looks across the river, and sees the great hills 'way behind Birkenhead, such miles an' miles away?"He said: “It’s great to be on the artistic side of the panto and creating it as well as being in it.

His local knowledge also emerges in the book's vivid descriptions of Victorian Liverpool, and its careful attempts to reproduce the Scouse dialect. Little Nelly Bates was a delicate-looking child, with a pale, thoughtful face, and big, round, dreamy-looking eyes. She had Both the show and the production have a wholesome vintage feel; it is a remnant from a time of simpler and less spectacular musicals; in its current form it can’t compete with the glamour and grit of the contemporary theatre scene, though potentially has a future in the catacombs of the amateur dramatics repertoire. With a full revamp and some new songs, the heart of this Liverpool Tale could be revived for another 25 years. “Everyone deserves the chance to dream.”

Her Benny

Eventually Nell shuffles off the mortal coil and probably gets to heaven or becomes a little angel and Benny decides the best thing he can do is head off down the road towards Manchester and then lie down and wait for death to take him Cheerfully Benny is rescued by a friendly farmer and is cured of his heavy heart by a healthy dose of farm activities and the outdoor lifestyle and goes on to make his way in the world with an almost improbable bought of self improvements. As well as directing and starring in the Wycombe Swan Theatre’s panto, Snow White (where he will be joined by his glamorous wife) the father-of-two is preparing for another stint in the popular play, Hot Flush, described as a “celebration of the menopause”!

He said: “I have known Bernie for years, we are old mates. It’s great working with your pals, and Bernie is lovely – she takes her job seriously, but doesn’t take herself too seriously! my pastoral work, during a three years' residence in Liverpool, called me frequently into some of the poorest neighbourhoods of that town, where I became acquainted with some of the originals of this story ... the grouping of the characters is purely fictitious, but not the characters themselves.... Some of them are alive today, others have gone to their rest.... [If my story] shall awaken any sympathy for the poor little waifs of our streets, I shall have my reward.May we eat our taters by your fire, Joe?" said the plaintive voice of little Nelly, as she placed her tiny hand on the fence, on which a red light was burning.

To have two of Liverpool’s most recognisable and much admired actors who have called the Royal Court a theatrical home, performing in such a prestigious production such as Her Benny, especially in its 25 th Anniversary year, that is a celebration of both the musical’s appeal to the people of the city that encapsulate the hope found in the streets that edge the Mersey. It is a sense of hope that does not come from privilege or demand, it is, as the play shows, one that has been fought for, breath by breath, ideal by ideal, and there have been many casualties. For all the Nells that have fallen, for all the Bennys accused of a crime they did not commit, there have been the moments of redemption, of social acceptance and the need of change and where better than in Liverpool, a city that holds that firmly in its grip and offers to all who stand by the city. For what you please to give," said Benny sturdily. "Times is bad at present, and little chaps like us is glad to *ave what we catches." If you are able to ignore the moralistic and didactic overtones of each chapter, the narrative is an important tale of the conditions on the streets of Liverpool when there was no Government safety net, healthcare, sanitation or empathy for the disadvantaged . The harshness of life and death is brought easily to the minds eye of even a modern reader, and the book is certain to bring more than one tear to the eye of even the most cold hearted of readers.the street Arabs of our large towns and cities; on the contrary, there was an air of refinement about her that was difficult to account for. Poor little waif! Her own mother she could not remember. She had only known a stepmother—a cruel, drunken woman; and, alas! her father was no better. Almost as soon as she could walk she had been sent into the streets with her brother Benny, who was a ​year older, to get her living as best she could. Never knowing a parent's love, the affections of these two children had gone out to each other. Each to each was more than all the world beside. At the time our story opens Nelly was nine years of age, and Benny, as we said, a year older. The gentleman looked after the little fellow with an amused smile, but volunteered no further remark. Dalton remarked, “The whole experience of sensing an audience living each moment of the show makes ‘Her Benny’ so special to me.”