BERNIE Burgess looks back on a career in showbusiness which started backstage and ended on stage.

The Oxford-born singer even fell in love with and married one of the stars he appeared with, the popular Irish singer Ruby Murray.

They appeared together many times, including once at the New Theatre, Oxford, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the early 1960s.

Bernie, the son of Lennard and Stella Burgess, was born in Jericho and attended St Barnabas, SS Philip and James and Summertown schools.

He remembers having a long walk to Summertown School, as children from the Cutteslowe estate were barred from walking through the private estate by the notorious Cutteslowe Walls.

His father worked as a projectionist at the Ritz cinema in George Street and at the Scala in Walton Street and later, as a building worker in the 1930s, helped construct the New Theatre.

He recalls: “Little did I realise when, as a small child, I stood on the stage of the unfinished theatre with my father and gazed out at what appeared to be an enormous auditorium, I would one day co-star with a very successful singer at that same theatre.”

The family moved to Northampton when Mr Burgess senior was appointed chief electrician at a theatre in the town.

Leaving school at 14, son Bernie joined him, working his way through all the backstage departments before becoming assistant stage manager.

The 4 Mell-O-Macs, a vocal quartet, appeared at the theatre and were looking for a replacement singer.

They had heard Bernie and two colleagues harmonising for fun and asked them to audition.

Bernie was chosen and started to tour with the group, which later changed its name to The 4 Jones Boys.

In the summer of 1956, they appeared in a Bernard Delfont summer season show at Southsea with David Nixon, Reg Varney and a full supporting cast.

Delfont saw the show and booked the group for a two-week variety show at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, and a summer show at Blackpool the following year starring Ruby Murray.

Bernie tells me: “Ruby had become a world record holder by having no fewer than five hit records in the Top 20 at the same time – her box office pulling power was enormous.

“The show was an outstanding success.

“One night, I shared the back seat of a car en route to a restaurant with Ruby.

“We spoke for the first time one to one, she touched me and I was smitten. A lightning courtship followed, we became engaged and nine days later, we married in secret.”

Despite their punishing schedule, the couple, who had two children, Julie and Timothy, made regular visits to Oxford to see relatives.

The marriage lasted 17 years, ending in 1974 and Ruby died aged 61 in 1996 from liver cancer.

In 2006, Belfast City Council unveiled a plaque at Ulster Hall in memory of “one of the city most famous and well-loved daughters”.

Meanwhile, Bernie, now 87, lives in retirement at Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, with plenty of memories both on and off stage.