THE crowd became excited. It was nearly time for the celebrity to arrive in Bourne-mouth for a book-signing. A car pulled up, she alighted and mayhem broke out.

Police were forced to close Old Christchurch Road and then stand helplessly back as the woman everyone had come to see waved – and then disappeared into the crowd at WHSmith.

Katie Price? Cheryl Cole? Madonna?

The date was October 29 1960 and the crowd of mostly middle-aged women had come to see the biggest female star this country has ever produced – Miss Gracie Fields.

Thirty years after her death, it’s hard to explain now how famous she was. The woman universally known as “Our Gracie” was born above a chip shop in the Lancashire mill-town of Rochdale.

But she rose to become a Dame Commander of the British Empire, became the highest-paid star of her day and an artist whose performances were considered so important for the war effort that on one occasion parliament rose early to allow everyone to go home and hear her on the wireless.

Now she is the subject of a major play on the BBC starring Jane Horrocks, which will concentrate on the “staggering repercussions” of her wartime marriage to Italian, Monty Banks, whom the government considered an “enemy alien”.

As an actor and comedian, Gracie was best known for her signature tunes, Sally and Wish Me Luck, but there was so much more to her than that.

She was a tireless fundraiser and entertainer for the war effort, travelling miles to reach the troops. She allowed her London home to become a maternity hospital and during the Second World War personally paid for service personnel to travel free on buses in Rochdale.

Her sheer ordinariness meant Gracie made friends wherever she went. Twenty years ago the Best family of Lowther Road, Bournemouth, told the Daily Echo their mother had been a good friend of the star and described a visit one of them made to see this “warm-hearted and very beautiful woman”, in London.

Following her death on the island of Capri in 1979, Poole businessman Maxwell Jackson shared his memories with the Daily Echo of a show at the Manchester Pavilion, where Gracie was doing a char’s act which involved her scrubbing the floor with a brush and pail.

“Anyone else would have just rubbed the brush but not our Gracie,” he said. “She started scrubbing the stage on one side on the Monday night, moving across to new sections until, by the end of the week, she had cleaned the entire stage. You could see by the colour of the boards how she was progressing.”

And how did he know?

“I watched her every night as I’d booked a box for a week!”

Gracie told the Daily Echo she spent many happy childhood days visiting Bournemouth but never confirmed the persistent local rumour that she owned a beach house on Sandbanks, called Showboat. A former resident of Sandbanks claimed the house had belonged to her first husband, Archie Pitt, and that Gracie had stayed there for one season.

Whatever the truth, Gracie’s visits to Bournemouth were well-documented. In 1938 she filmed part of her film, Keep Smiling, at the Pavilion and returned there when her brother, Tommy, was appearing at the theatre in Mother Goose. Even though she was in the audience she merited a standing ovation and a quick burst of She’s a Jolly Good Fellow from the delighted orchestra.

In November 1957 she was at the Winter Gardens shortly after appearing in the Royal Command Performance. “I’ve always found the most lovely audiences here,” she told our reporter.

l Gracie! Will be screened on BBC 4 this autumn. Children’s author, Enid Blyton, also features in the series, to be played by Helena Bonham Carter.

The writer, best known for the Famous Five and Secret Seven adventure stories, had strong connections with Dorset.

Many of the settings in the books are inspired by the county, which Blyton first visited in 1931, with her family.

Kirrin Castle, for example, is popularly believed to be based on Corfe Castle; Whispering Island is based on Brownsea Island; Mystery Moor is reputedly set on the heath between Stoborough and Corfe; while Finniston Farm is Blyton's own farm at Sturminster Newton.

In 1950, KennethWaters, Blyton's second husband, bought the Isle of Purbeck golf club, and sold it 15 years later.