For more than a century there has been entertainment at seaside resorts to keep the holidaymakers happy – especially when the sun fails to shine.

Piers, pavilions and playhouses have been pressed into service all along the Sussex coast and many big names have graced the stages.

Tommy Trinder, Ronnie Corbett and Elsie and Doris Waters (Gert and Daisy) topped the bill at the Palace Pier theatre in Brighton in the three years before it was put out of service by a barge colliding with the pier in 1973.

Laurence Olivier made his stage debut (and fell flat on his face at the Brighton Hippodrome before going on to become Britain’s greatest actor.

I can remember going to Bognor in 1956, one of the worst summers of the last century, and being entertained almost every night of the week.

There was a show in the pier theatre and another in a marquee. The Esplanade Theatre staged four different variety programmes each week.

Worthing had and still has three ventures – the Connaught Theatre, the Pavilion Theatre and the Assembly Hall.

There was the White Rock at Hastings, the de la Warr Pavilion in Bexhill and another handsome pier in St Leonard’s.

Brighton had shows on both piers during the summer – and there were many other venues.

Those that have survived include the Dome and the Theatre Royal. Among the many casualties were the Grand in North Road and the Alhambra on the seafront.

The sort of entertainment punters wanted tended to be variety of the kind to be found at music halls. The greatest exponent of it was Max Miller.

Born in Brighton in 1894, Miller was too late for the greatest days of music hall but managed almost single handedly to prolong its life until well after the Second World War. “There’ll never be another,” he told audiences ruefully – and he was right.

Another Brighton stalwart was George Robey, known as the Prime Minister of Mirth.

The more stern and serious he appeared, the more the audience laughed.

Sedate Eastbourne was surprisingly strong in seaside variety, boasting both Sandy Powell and Clarkson Rose while pianist Russ Conway also lived there at one time.

For every big name there was a lesser light. I remember seeing comedian Syd Marx at Bognor with my mother.

More than 20 years later, he popped up at the Dome in Brighton performing virtually the same act with a musical saw.

Variety began to fade in the 1960s as the bucket and spade trade left on cheap flights.

Brighton Council had a disastrous season with Charlie Drake, then well past his best, and lost a lot of money. Venues started to close.

Audiences have become more sophisticated and the Brighton Festival, started in 1967, breaks box office records every year.

But with a few exceptions, such as Cromer Pier in Norfolk, seafront variety shows have had their day.