Sue Devaney receives Mayoral Commendation

Photo: Joel C Fildes

Mayoress Cecile Biant, Sue Devaney and Mayor Sunrinder Biant

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

Actress Sue Devaney attended afternoon tea at the Mayor’s Parlour at Rochdale Town Hall on Friday (18 March) to receive a Mayor’s Commendation Award from the Mayor and Mayoress of Rochdale, Surinder and Cecile Biant.

The award, under the theme ‘Proud of Rochdale, Proud of You’ recognises Sue’s outstanding contribution to acting and entertainment, in particular with the borough of Rochdale.

Sue is currently playing Dame Gracie Fields, in Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s production of Our Gracie, a new play by Philip Goulding on the life of the famous singer, actress and comedienne, which runs until Saturday 26 March.

On playing Gracie Fields, she said: “I think as a northern actress growing up in Rochdale Gracie has always been a part of my heritage. I do hope I do her and Rochdale proud.”

Before attending afternoon tea with the Mayor and Mayoress, Sue visited Touchstones museum in Rochdale to look at photographs of Gracie Fields and the collection of programmes from her many stage appearances.

Sue commented: “She was so popular, sometimes when she finished a show she would be paraded through the West End, but she always stayed down to earth.”

Sue grew up in Rochdale and trained at Oldham Theatre Workshop. She landed her first big acting job, as Debbie Webster on Coronation Street, when she was 17-years-old and became a familiar face on television screens with regular roles on Casualty and Dinner Ladies. Sue is also a successful theatre actress and completed an international tour playing Rosie in Mamma Mia in late 2015.

On Thursday 10 March, Sue attended the unveiling of the third plaque on the Gracie Fields tourist trail currently being unveiled across the town of Rochdale. The plaque was unveiled at 2 Milkstone Road, the site of the former Schofield’s Off Licence, where Gracie often stayed with friends Ada and Bertha Schofield when she visited Rochdale.

The Gracie Fields tourist trail is marked by a series of purple plaques to be erected over the coming months in places that were significant in her life. There will be a total of eight plaques unveiled this year, followed by a statue of Gracie Fields erected close to Rochdale Town Hall in the summer.

The first plaque was unveiled in January in Molesworth Street, where Gracie Fields was born 118 years ago. The second was unveiled in February on Newgate House, the site of The Old Circus, where Gracie first performed on stage at the age of seven.