BEST known for playing Mrs Betty Slocombe in Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1985, actress Mollie Sugden always loved to put a smile on people’s faces.

Whether it was a laugh from her comedy routines or visiting fans in hospital visits, Ms Sugden went out of her way to entertain and she came to Sussex to do exactly that on several occasions.

Her play, Relatively Speaking, came to Eastbourne’s Devonshire Theatre in 1978. This would be the first of many visits as Ms Sugden returned to the town in 1986 to appear at Drusilla’s Tea Party in Drusilla’s Park, near Alfriston, and then again in 1988 on a trip with her husband, actor William Moore.

Fans will remember Mr Moore as Sydney Lumsden in the popular 1980’s BBC comedy, Sorry!

The two acted alongside one another on My Husband and I. Ms Sugden died in 2009.

Did you bump into either of the two on their historic travels?

The pair weren’t the only entertainers to be enamoured by Sussex, with comedian Jimmy Tarbuck coming to Brighton for numerous visits.

The popular quiz show host of the Seventies and Eighties brought his comedy show to the Theatre Royal on a number of occasions, though the venue has been missed out of his tour in recent years.

His most recent Sussex show was at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre on Sunday, September 9 2012.

Earlier this year, voice clips from Mr Tarbuck were used in a play depicting the life of Cilla Black in the 1960s and her rise to stardom.

Rumour has it Mr Tarbuck even played as a footballer for Brighton and Hove Albion before making his mark as a comedian and moving into showbusiness.

Does anybody remember playing alongside Jimmy Tarbuck?