Tag Archives: bromley

Two young actors start a repertory theatre

New Theatre Bromley
New Theatre Bromley

Peter Goss, my godfather, and David Poulson, my Dad, met while working as actors in repertory theatre at the Theatre Royal, Bath in August 1954. Both had been in weekly rep for several years, long enough to have some idea about how to produce a play as well as act in it. When I asked my mother, actress Yvonne Forster, whether it was Dad’s youthful good looks that attracted her, she said it was his ability to bring order to a chaotic production she was acting in (in Dartford). In some scribbled notes Dad made for a memoir (which he never completed), he described a performance where he was acting as a human door hinge for a broken part of a set (in between being fired by a furious producer!) – the show must go on…

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Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition?

Young John David William Poulson

Growing up, I thought Poulson was an unusual name – not many around us in Bromley. It was often misspelled (so you learn “P as in Peter, o-u-l-s-o-n”) or mispronounced – we said it POLE-SUN not POOL-SUN. Poulson is not only fairly common, depending on the location, but some of the people who shared the last name – and in the case of my father, grandfather and his cousin, first and last name – got themselves into trouble with the law and generated all sorts of unsavory press coverage! Continue reading Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition?