Members of the Fox family, one of Britain's most glamorous theatrical dynasties, are to appear on stage together for the first time to pay tribute to the legacy of their illustrious forebear, the engineer Samson Fox.
Actor brothers Edward and James, together with the third brother, the film and theatre producer Robert, are at the heart of a family that has produced two generations of talent, from James's children Lydia and Laurence, who has a leading role in ITV's Lewis and is husband to Billie Piper, to Edward's son Freddie, young star of the BBC Christmas adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and younger brother of actress Emilia, who is best known for her television roles in the BBC's Merlin and as a forensic scientist in the drama Silent Witness.
But the family can trace its history back to the moment when Samson Fox, who was born to an impoverished family in Bradford, created an innovative way of coping with the dangerously high pressure in an industrial steam engine: the "corrugated boiler flue".
After setting up the Leeds Forge Company in 1874 to produce "Best Yorkshire" iron for locomotive and marine engine parts, Samson patented his stronger flue and made his fortune. By the 1890s he was a leading community figure in Yorkshire, helping to shape the development of Harrogate and becoming mayor three times. He also provided a street gas lighting system, a steam fire engine and surviving blocks of social housing.
Edward Fox and his wife, the actress Joanna David, have decided to lead members of the family in May in a one-off stage show at the Royal Hall, in Harrogate, the grand venue commissioned and paid for by his ancestor.
"Samson came from the poorest of backgrounds, and yet became this extraordinary genius of ironwork and manufacturing," said Edward. He said it would be the first time the family had all worked together, although his wife and daughter both appeared in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
The Royal Hall, created for Samson Fox by the renowned theatrical designer Frank Matcham and his architect Robert Beale, was completed in 1903.
It was conceived as a cure hall, or Kursaal, in the tradition of European spa towns, and renamed in the wave of anti-German sentiment that followed the first world war.
"My great-grandfather had said to his fellow Harrogate councillors – and it was a very poor town then – that they should visit the European spa towns for inspiration," said Fox. "He financed the whole trip himself and they came back saying it was absolutely wonderful. He built it, not just for the dignitaries, who lived in the town, but for the whole community."
The hall was used as a cinema and fell into disrepair, but was restored four years ago after a long campaign, supported by Edward and led by the late chairman of Harrogate civic society Lilian Mina, who believed it was vital for the building to be used again by the wider public. "There was so much gold leaf in the place when it was completed it was called a palace of glittering gold. And the extraordinary thing is that it has now been restored to that state," said Fox.
"Some councillors were asking what was the point of the place, but Lilian was inspired one evening when she saw a bad fight break out on its steps between some young people. She realised they had nothing to do and she wanted to make it back into something useful. It is used by the whole of Yorkshire now."
The Fox family have decided to put on Saints and Sinners for the people of Harrogate on the renovated stage of the Royal Hall. "It will be a show with readings and music: with pieces that are funny in an erudite way," said Fox, adding that it would feature the words of Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Lord Byron, Dorothy Parker, WH Auden, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
