Sanatorium stars THE recent BBC TV drama about Morecambe and Wise reminded me of when I was a patient in Fairfield Sanatorium in about 1953/54.

Morecambe and Wise, Dickie Valentine and I think Harry Worth visited the hospital, performed a show and toured the wards speaking to patients.

The show was also broadcast on the hospital radio run by patients, who were djs before they had been invented, as they also provided a weekly record request show.

The artists were appearing at the Rialto, now Mecca, in Fishergate and we considered this a great honour. How many of today’s so-called stars would do what they did, I wonder?

I don’t think it was even reported at the time, yet Dickie Valentine was one of the pop idols of his day.

J Lewis, York