Born in Saint Helens, Merseyside

Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 1879 – 8 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to the BBC, was Britain's first international conductor.

Born to a rich industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. He used his access to the family fortune to finance opera from the 1910s until the start of the Second World War, staging seasons at Covent Garden, Drury Lane and His Majesty's Theatre with international stars, his own orchestra and a wide repertoire. Among the works he introduced to England were Richard Strauss's Elektra, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier and three operas by Frederick Delius.

Together with his younger colleague Malcolm Sargent, Beecham founded the London Philharmonic, and he conducted its first performance at the Queen's Hall in 1932. In the 1940s he worked for three years in the United States where he was music director of the Seattle Symphony and conducted at the Metropolitan Opera. After his return to Britain, he founded the Royal Philharmonic in 1946 and conducted it until his death in 1961.

Beecham's repertoire was eclectic, sometimes favouring lesser-known composers over famous ones. His specialities included composers whose works were neglected in Britain before he became their advocate, such as Delius and Berlioz. Other composers with whose music he was frequently associated were Haydn, Schubert, Sibelius and the composer he revered above all others, Mozart.

Beecham was married three times. In 1903 he married Utica Celestina Welles, daughter of Dr Charles S. Welles, of New York, and his wife Ella Celeste, née Miles. Beecham and his wife had two sons: Adrian, born in 1904, who became a composer and achieved some celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s, and Thomas, born in 1909. After the birth of his second child, Beecham began to drift away from the marriage. By 1911, no longer living with his wife and family, he was involved as co-respondent in a much-publicised divorce case. Utica ignored advice that she should divorce him and secure substantial alimony; she did not believe in divorce. She never remarried after Beecham divorced her (in 1943), and she outlived her former husband by sixteen years, dying in 1977.

In 1909 or early 1910, Beecham began an affair with Maud Alice (known as Emerald), Lady Cunard. Although they never lived together, it continued, despite other relationships on his part, until his remarriage in 1943. She was a tireless fund-raiser for his musical enterprises. Beecham's biographers are agreed that she was in love with him, but that his feelings for her were less strong. During the 1920s and 1930s, Beecham also had an affair with Dora Labbette, a soprano sometimes known as Lisa Perli, with whom he had a son, Paul Strang, born in March 1933.

In 1943 Lady Cunard was devastated to learn (not from Beecham) that he intended to divorce Utica to marry Betty Humby, a concert pianist 29 years his junior. Beecham married Betty in 1943, and they were a devoted couple until her death in 1958. On 10 August 1959, two years before his death, he married in Zurich his former secretary, Shirley Hudson, who had worked for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's administration since 1950. She was 27, he 80.

Bernie Clifton (born Bernard M. Quinn) was born on 30 April 1936 in St Helens, Merseyside, where he also grew up. British comedian and entertainer, known for his work with his orange ostrich puppet costume Oswald the Ostrich.

Clifton's first performing job was as a singer with a dance band, but he was fired after a month. His first television performance was on the light-entertainment show The Good Old Days, where he was inspired by Les Dawson.

He performed in the 1979 Royal Variety Performance. He subsequently appeared on several further occasions, including the 2016 show.

He made regular appearances on Crackerjack!. During the 1980s, he appeared on The Keith Harris Show, and in 1982, Clifton ran the London Marathon with Oswald the Ostrich.

In 2002 Clifton featured on the BBC2 documentary series The Entertainers, which followed 1970s and '80s entertainers who had dropped out of the limelight. In 2005 Clifton and Oswald appeared in Peter Kay's and Tony Christie's music video for the Comic Relief charity re-release of "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo".

In 2005, Clifton appeared as himself in an episode of the David Renwick sitcom Love Soup having previously been mentioned by Renwick in an early episode of One Foot in the Grave.

He made his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in 2006 at the Udderbelly venue. Writing in The Guardian, Brian Logan gave it 3 out of 5 stars and called it an "exercise in retro comedy", but "also unrepentantly funny".

Clifton was a contestant on Series 5 of The Voice UK, applying under his birth name. He performed "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" from Man of La Mancha, and did not advance past the blind auditions. Following his appearance on the show he released an album of covers called The Impossible Dream, which included "The Lady in Red" and "Wind Beneath My Wings". After a death metal band's song titles were printed on his album cover by mistake, Clifton presented an award at the Kerrang! Awards in June 2016.

In 2018 he starred in ITV's Last Laugh in Vegas, a documentary following eight "showbiz legends" as they prepared a show in Las Vegas.

In January 2020 Clifton appeared as a guest on the first episode of the new series of Crackerjack! on CBBC. In February that year he played himself in the first episode of Meet The Richardsons on Dave. Within the episode, he is a family friend of Jon Richardson and teaches him how to operate a monkey puppet similar to his ostrich.

Clifton has starred in several pantomimes, playing the father of Cinderella at the Hull New Theatre in 2018 and at Northampton's Royal & Derngate in 2019. He has also presented various shows on BBC Radio Sheffield, and BBC Radio 4. In 2018, Inside No. 9 titled an episode Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room.

In 1961 Clifton married Marjorie Hancock. They went on to have four children together. Clifton was widowed in 2000.

Timothy John Follin - born 19 December 1970 in St Helens, Merseyside. English video game music composer who has written tracks for a variety of titles and home gaming systems, including the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive, Super NES, Game Boy, Dreamcast, and PlayStation.

Follin has also co-founded a TV advertising company called ABF Pictures and a general-purpose media company called Baggy Cat Ltd, which to date has produced two video games, Contradiction and At Dead of Night.

Among Follin's works are the soundtracks to Solstice, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, Plok, and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future.

Tim is married and has two school-age children. Tim, son of Marjorie Follin, was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom had careers in the video game industry. Oldest brother Michael Stuart (Mike) moved on after 16 years as a programmer to become an ordained minister in the Church of England. Middle brother Geoffrey Mark (Geoff), a fellow game composer who was proficient in several instruments, MIDI software, and reading sheet music, later went on to become a primary school teacher and later a part-time math tutor while occasionally composing music. Other family includes Auntie Janice Perkins, Uncle David Eaton, and his cousins Catherine and Rachel Perkins, of Liverpool.

George Robert Groves (13 December 1901 – 4 September 1976) was born on over a barber's shop at 57 Duke Street, St Helens, Lancashire, England. His father, George Alfred Groves, was a master barber and talented musician who founded the first brass band in St Helens. His son George Jr. was proficient in a number of instruments and regularly played the cornet in the town's Theatre Royal. He was also a lather boy in his father's two barber shops in Duke Street and Owen Street.

George was educated at Nutgrove Junior School and Cowley Grammar School in St. Helens. After gaining a scholarship to Liverpool University, he graduated in 1922 with an honours degree in Engineering and Telephony. He spent a year in Coventry working for GEC developing early wireless receivers and then applied for employment in the United States. On 1 December 1923, George sailed to New York on the SS Laconia for what he thought would be a two-year engagement.

George Groves was a film sound pioneer who played a significant role in developing the technology that brought sound to the silent screen. He is also credited as being Hollywood's first ‘sound man’; he was the recording engineer on the seminal Al Jolson picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), as well as many other early talkies. In a career with Warner Brothers that spanned 46 years, he rose to become their Director of Sound and won two Academy Awards out of eight nominations in total.

Carole Matthews is a successful and popular British author, famous for her sense of humour and her romantic comedy novels. Her books have sold over 6.2 million books worldwide and have been published in more than 31 countries. In 2011, Matthews was inducted into the Festival of Romance Hall of Fame for her outstanding contribution to romance writing.

Mathews was born in St Helens, Merseyside in 1960 and was always an avid reader. She attended Champneys College where she studied Beauty Therapy. She has worked as a secretary, ice-cream lady, television presenter, beauty therapist and freelance writer. Her first book was Let's Meet on Platform Eight and was published in 1997.

Her latest book is Christmas for Beginners.

She has published 34 novels and has appeared on the Sunday Times and USA Today bestsellers lists and her books, Welcome To The Real World, Wrapped up in You and Happiness for Beginners made the shortlist for the Romantic Novelists' Association - Romantic Novel of the Year Award.

Her 4th book For Better, For Worse, was picked in summer 2002 for a TV book club pick in America, Reading with Ripa, on the show Live with Regis and Kelly. She has sold over 6.4 million books worldwide and is published in more than 31 countries. She has had more than 4.2 million library lends in the United Kingdom since she started writing.

In 2011, she was inducted into the Festival of Romance Hall of Fame for her outstanding contribution to romance writing.

In 2015 Carole was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association for 25 novels which have consistently appeared in bestseller lists, and for her continued championing of the RNA and romantic fiction.

As well as writing, Matthews has also been a television presenter and is a regular radio guest.

She lives in Milton Keynes with her husband, Kevin, who she regularly refers to as 'Lovely Kev'.

McCormack was born on 13 January 1972 in St Helens, Merseyside. She is the youngest of six children born to Gerald James McCormack and Kathleen McCormack (née Towey), both primary school teachers. She was educated at Carmel College, St Helens, then studied for a BA in History and Social and Political Science at Newnham College, Cambridge, followed by an MSc in Psychology at the University of Reading and a PhD in Sociology at the University of Surrey.

Una McCormack is a British-Irish academic, scriptwriter and novelist. She is the author of The Baba Yaga (2015) and The Star of the Sea (2016), two books in the Weird Space series from UK science fiction publisher Abaddon Books.

McCormack taught at Anglia Ruskin University, as a lecturer in creative writing. She was also a co-director of the Anglia Ruskin University Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy. She is best known as the author of numerous tie-in novels based on the science fiction TV series Star Trek and Doctor Who.

McCormack lives in Cambridge with her partner Matthew and their daughter.