Last week we brought you memories of Hollywood film star Robert Mitchum touching down at Southend Airport in May 1963 on his way to start filming in London.

Today we bring you another famous face in an Essex place, uncovered from our dusty newspaper archives.

We found an image of a young Dave Allen presenting the trophy to the winner of the “Southend Miss Lovelies” beauty contest held at the Cliffs Pavilion in September 1966.

The Irish comedian, known for his satirical oneliners, was photographed by the Southend Pictorial presenting the winning trophy to 22-year-old Jackie Kelk, from Margate. Local girl and former Southend Carnival queen Jane Spry, 19, came runner up while third place went to Vivienne West, 21, from Woodford Green.

Allen, who died in March 2005, made his first TV appearance on New Faces in 1959. In the early Sixties, he toured as part of a package with the Beatles but his first big break came in Australia, where he was picked out at a club and given his own TV show. Returning to England, he found more TV work including a regular spot on Val Doonican’s show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium before landing a series of his stand up shows. Best known for his dry humour, the comedian was usually seen propped up on a stool with a glass of whiskey in hand. The outspoken atheist always famously ended his chat show with the words “goodnight, thank you and may your God go with you.”

Another of his famous quips was: “We spend our lives on the run: we get up by the clock, eat and sleep by the clock, get up again, go to work - and then we retire. And what do they give us? A clock.”