POULTON businessman and thespian Tony Stone gave one of the best performances of his life - to pass an exclusive acting exam in London.

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art awarded Tony the Licentiate Acting Diploma, the highest qualification awarded by the college with an average of only one in six people passing the gruelling test. The 49-year-old underwent his hour-long ordeal playing four different roles at the Macowan Theatre in the West End.

During the exam Tony, managing director of Business Travel Plus in Blackpool, came under the trained eyes of three professional actors who commended him on his expertise in improvisation.

But Tony, from The Downs, Poulton, says he owes much of his success to his tutor, Jack Ganley of Whittakers Dance and Drama Centre in Hornby Road, Blackpool.

He said: "Mr Ganley has been my inspiration, mentor and friend for the past six years.

"It's only through his persuasion and never-ending encouragement that I have progressed to this level. This has been somewhat of a Holy Grail for me I suppose.

"From trying to better myself at what was essentially a hobby, I moved to wanting to do better than that and then wanting to act to the absolute best of my abilities."

Amazingly Tony's wife, Sarah Jane, passed the same exam in 1995 after also studying at Whittakers.

The couple, the original founders of the renowned Premier Theatre Company, are currently in rehearsal before treading the boards opposite each other playing the leading roles in an adaptation of Moliere's famous comedy Le Malade Imaginaire, to be staged by the Windmill Players in October.

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