Stan Laurel

Ghost hunter claims to spot ghost of Stan Laurel

The paranormal investigator also claims he "spoke" to the former silent movie star - one half of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy - and even caught him on camera. Micky Vermooch, 64, said he also met Stan's live-in lover for eight years Mae Dahlberg at the derelict Kings cinema in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.

Russell Kane on his comedy heroes

Stand-up and TV guy picks an improv king and slapstick duo among his comic icons.

Glasgow home of comedy legend Stan Laurel commemorated

Comedy great Stan Laurel is to be commemorated with a plaque on the Glasgow tenement where he grew up.

Laurel and Hardy: it's still comedy genius

Stan Laurel, the tall, thin, "dumb" half of the team of Laurel & Hardy, was born on June 16, 1890. To mark what would have been his 126th birthday, Martin Chilton looks at why they comedy duo continue to make people laugh after many a generation.

Stan Laurel and Scotland - where his career began

Stan Laurel's successful career in comedy began in Scotland and the country influenced much of his work.

Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein present the first in this three-part canter through the history of British entertainment in the time before television. Tonight, they begin with the music-hall tradition, stopping off at Marie Lloyd, Champagne Charlie and comedian Dan Leno - widely believed to be the act copied by silent screen upstarts such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Skinner and Klein also form their own act to try their hand at old-school showbiz.

What did we do before TV? For a start, people like me wouldn't have had a job and people in tracksuits wouldn't have had easy access to DNA tests. So, was everything terrible before television?

Certainly not, says this new series. Presented by Frank Skinner, and Suzy Klein, it goes back in time to ask how the masses found their entertainment without TV.

The rich had their theatres, opera houses and musical concerts, but where did the noisy rabble go for their kicks? Their chief source of entertainment was the music hall which offered a pastiche of elegance, with its velvet curtains, brocade and lights, but the acts on stage were hardly refined: they were often loud and bawdy and the audiences adored them.

The most famous star from that era was Marie Lloyd, the singer, but we're also told of Dan Leno, one of the first stand-up comedians, a man who counted Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel amongst his fans.

Skinner and Klein seem to have a great time in this series, dressing up as these famous performers and trying out their routines, the content of which might seem a bit silly or tame now, but that's because TV has jaded us. Imagine how it seemed when you were just out of the factory after a 14 hour shift, having spent the day amongst clanking machinery trying to whip at your hair and nab your knuckles.

Final colour footage of Stan Laurel emerges online

Final colour footage of the late great Stan Laurel has emerged on line to celebrate the late comedy actor's birthday today - June 16.

Stan Laurel's Bishop Auckland baptism church for sale

The church where Stan Laurel was baptised has been put up for sale by the Diocese of Durham.

Vandal defaced Laurel and Hardy painting in Ulverston

Mural of Stan Laurel defaced by vandal at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Laurel's hometown of Ulverston, Cumbria, paying tribute to comedy duo.