Like all good theatres, Theatre Royal Brighton is widely reported to be haunted and given its long and rich history, there are plenty of rumours as to which departed souls could be returning to watch over the venue.

I'm told there are four ghosts, says Chief Executive Julien Boast. One is the so-called Lady In Grey, one is a man and the other two are kids.

To this list can possibly be added the ghost of Sarah Bernhardt, or Divine Sarah, an acclaimed actress of her day who sustained a leg injury while appearing at Theatre Royal Brighton that later led to the amputation of the limb.

Some have suggested this may have caused her to return to the venue from beyond the grave.

Yet it is the Lady in Grey who is best known, widely reported to be Mrs Nye Chart, the legendary woman who ran the theatre from 1876 to 1892.

Among those who claim to have seen the Lady in Grey are Danny la Rue, Sylvia Randall and former EastEnders star Michael Cashman, as well as the actor Martin Jarvis, who has apparently spoken of it on several occasions.

There is a story of an old manager, going through the Royal Circle late one night and hearing the thumping of several seats.

Looking up, he apparently saw a mysterious lady at the back of the theatre, acting as if surveying the auditorium.

Could it have been Mrs Nye Chart checking that the theatre was still being run according to her high standards?

A doorman and a stage technician have both reported similar stories, while the technical team report the ghost doesn't like loud shows apparently, there are always mysterious faults.

A further tale concerns a young boy who attended a performance of Roald Dahl's The Twits and was convinced he saw a woman in one of the boxes, dressed in clothing of a bygone era.

So insistent was he that his dad phoned the theatre to check, only to discover no tickets to that box had been sold. Spooky!