THERE is something sadly ironic about the title of the first show ever staged at Bournemouth’s Pier Theatre in view of its likely closure. Ted Rogers starred in it and it was described as a “sophisticated urban revue evolving if not good old-fashioned belly laughs, the intelligent chortle.”

I’m all for intelligent chortles but that description sounds very dated today.

Even so, half a century ago the Pier Theatre was a symbol of a town getting back on its feet. The pier itself had been partially blown up during the war for fear of invasion and the new theatre marked an investment in fun, frolics and future good times.

The roll call of celebrities appearing at the theatre over those years showed its powers of attraction. From Sid James to Sooty and from Bernard Bresslaw to Mr Pastry, its summer show stars read like a catalogue of many of the top household names of their times.

And it played a part in the town’s social history with concerns voiced over such things as the banner of No Sex Please, We’re British in 1973 (“children will see it”) and whether actresses would be topless or just pretend to be in Birds on Parade two years later.

But times have changed and the Pier Theatre has struggled to hold its head up high in recent years.

Few will be shocked today that it looks likely to close and be replaced by “an indoor adventure sports attraction”. Which, to 21st century ears, again sounds like future fun.

By the way, the title of that first Pier Theatre production in 1960 was Carry on Laughing... and there won’t be so much of that in future. The days of audiences flocking to the likes of Not Now Darling, A Bed Full of Foreigners and Caught on the Hop on the pier look over.

The farces, you might say, have lost their draws.