Sunderland Empire: The British theatre supposedly haunted by the ghost of Sid James
From his wickedly perverted laugh to his incredibly slick, if raunchy, wit, Sid James will long be remembered as an iconic figure of British comedy.
A crucial part of the recurring ensemble that appeared in the Carry On film franchise, having appeared in 19 of the 31 films made, it’s hard to deny how influential James has been to future generations of comedic character actors, especially in the UK, where the Carry On films had their greatest success. As the leading man in the vast majority of his appearances, over the course of his career, he became a poster boy for smutty postcard humour, and the public lapped it up.
Given how, in many ways, the material within the films was laced with innuendo and was crass and indecent, it’s questionable as to whether it would pass in the modern world, given shifting morals and values. As a consequence, James stands as a relic of his time very much, as do the films, but that doesn’t stop them from being hailed as influential artefacts of how British comedy has evolved into what it is today.
His own style effectively began to die out in his absence, yet years after his passing in 1976, he still appears to be having a laugh by haunting the venue where he had his final moments on stage.
While performing in a production of The Mating Season at the Sunderland Empire, James tragically suffered a heart attack on stage, and he was pronounced dead on the scene. Audiences were unaware that he wasn’t improvising an off-the-cuff routine of his own, and therefore laughed during his final moments, which he may well revel in the idea of, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to freak out the theatre’s patrons.
Supposedly, many visitors to the theatre have since claimed that they’ve felt his presence in the auditorium or a cold air on certain sections of the stage, and several strange disappearances of technical equipment have been attributed to the ghostly James wishing to play pranks on people from beyond the grave.
However, the furthest act of macabre mischief-making that James has been accused of came from comedian Les Dawson, who, while performing at the Sunderland Empire in 1989, said he was visited by the ghost of the deceased comic while in his dressing room, and that it derailed his entire goddamn performance as a result.
Speaking about seeing the apparition, Dawson later claimed that “nothing would tempt me to return to that theatre, and certainly not that dressing room. What I experienced in that dressing room will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
Shaken by the incident, where a gaunt and haggard figure in the shape of James supposedly swore at Dawson before immediately fading into thin air, Dawson vowed never to return to the venue in future, with him directly requesting his agent that he never accept another booking from them.
Depending on whether you believe in the spirit world or not, this could sound implausible to you, but if ghosts were to exist, you know full well that James would be doing exactly this almost half a century on from his death. A joker from birth until death, and seemingly beyond, it’s clear that James isn’t ready to give up the ghost and close the curtains on his comedy capers.
