When Hollywood Met Halifax

Liza Tarbuck discovers how Jayne Mansfield sprinkled Hollywood glamour on the northern club circuit during the last turbulent year of her life.

Jayne Mansfield's story is a story of our times - the celebrity whose life unravelled.

In 1967, the year she was to die in a tragic road accident at 34, she packed up her furs and embarked on a little known tour of English northern clubs.

Her unique act of breathy ballads and risqué lap dancing routines astonished her audiences more used to it's-the-way-I-tell-'em comedians and inoffensive covers bands.

At the time Mansfield was spiralling into alcoholism and her life was imploding - realities she kept hidden from her English fans. The programme traces how the once glittering star of the Girl Can't Help It and Too Hot to Handle was forced to get out on the road as her movie career faded.

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.