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New Uniforms For Nurses?

26 Feb 1971
Victoria Hospital, Queen Victoria Road, Salus Street, Thursby Road, Burnley

New Uniforms For Nurses?

"New uniforms for nurses." Well they certainly never looked like this before! But the pretty harem girls in this picture - all nurses at Burnley hospitals - won't be wearing their Eastern outfits on the wards. They are reserving them for their production of "Dick Whittington."

From a review by Norman Powell:
A spoonful of sugar was the appropriate opening number of the pantomime "Dick Whittington" presented by staff members of Burnley hospitals on Friday night. The sugar was hardly necessary however for the medicine was most palatable, dispensed in a charming manner by a bevy of attractive nurses, assisted by their male colleagues. It is doubtful who enjoyed the show most, the audience or the cast, for the panto is very much an "inside" affair with comic Colin Foster as Dame (hot pants) Selina exchanging banter with the audience. In a show such as this "in" jokes can be expected, and even the recent award of the MBE to a hospital personality came in for a little sly humour. A cramped stage and crowded conditions in the Victoria Hospital nurses' home in no way hampered the cast, whose greatest asset was enthusiasm.

Fay Hart was an attractive Dick Whittington, and Christine Whitaker a charming Alice. The comedy was in the hands of Richard Waddington (Ald. Fitswarren), Douglas Preston (Idle Jack) and Colin Foster (Dame). Other parts were played by Kenneth Woods, Angela MacGivern, Linda Packer, Patrick Evans, Maureen Nelson, Maureen White and Kevin Wilding. Members of the chorus included Carol Whitaker, Jane Birtwistle, Kathleen Gwynett, Geraldine Clare, Una Jordan, Isabel Fell, Christine Frost, Linda Swindlehurst and Elspeth Turner. The show was produced by Sister R. Cross and Sister J. Thornton and the final performance will be today before a specially invited audience.

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