A life on the stage and a brush with a drunken James Bond

Doris Standring has been entertaining audiences for more than 70 years, enjoying a life on the stage, performing a variety of musical styles, from opera at Covent Garden to the colourful variety shows of the famous Black and White Minstrels, entertaining audiences the length and breadth of the country as well as abroad - reports the Halifax Courier.

Her career has brought her into contact with a host of celebrities – and on one occasion a brush with a young Sean Connery whose life as an actor was just beginning to take off.

It was while Doris was appearing on stage in Liverpool, starring alongside future stars Bill Maynard and Hylda Baker that she met the man who was to become perhaps the most famous and best-loved James Bond 007 of them all, Sean Connery.

"We got a message that the show South Pacific was running at the Empire, another theatre close by and would the girls from our company like to go ice-skating with the men from their company. Off we went but I fell flat on my back on the ice. Suddenly these strong arms picked me up and we got chatting. He was a nice chap but his room-mate turned out to be even nicer," she laughs.

"He was Sean Connery. I was 19 at the time and he was 23. A few of us agreed to all go out together again and on one occasion Sean had a little too much to drink so we made sure we got him back to his digs, got him undressed and safely tucked up in bed."

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