Fox family actors return to great-grandfather's glittering Yorkshire hall

Fox hunters can have a field day in Harrogate this weekend when pretty much the entire acting dynasty takes to the stage at the Royal Hall. Edward Fox , described by the promoters as the 'distinguished acting gent', which is spot-on, will present a collection of playlets, skits and readings with his wife Joanna David and their daughter Emilia and son Freddie. This is good going, because all our busy, with Emilia filming daily for Silent Witness and Freddie appearing nightly in Hay Fever in the West End. The get-together has robust local roots as well as thespian ones; the Royal Hall was originally known as the Kursaal, a name changed on the outbreak of the First World War because of anti-German sentiment, and was the brainchild of Edward Fox's great-grandfather. He was Samson Fox , an industrialist, inventor and all-round great son of Yorkshire, who returned from a Continental trip full of excitement at the kursaals, or 'cure halls' of foreign spas. Michaela Noonan of Harrogate Theatre , which has just started joint work with the Royal Hall this month, says: He successfully lobbied to have one built in Harrogate. Determined to make Harrogate's Kursaal as magnificent as possible, he enlisted renowned theatre designer Frank Matcham . The resulting splendour was known as 'a palace of glittering gold.' In Edwardian times, entertainment was considered an important part of the stress-relief process in the greater spa cure. Having taken a dip in the relaxing mineral baths to ease their bones, strung-out Edwardian Harrogatians and their many visitors from all over the world would take in a concert at the Kursaal to ease their minds. Opened in 1903, the hall has played host to every famous musical name since, from Elgar to the Beatles and has Bob Geldof and the Hallé orchestra coming (separately) this summer. The Foxes join the playbill with what they describe as: A fascinating collection of the really good, truly wicked and those torn both ways, taking in everything and everyone from Genesis to Jane Austen, Richard III to Mark Twain, Mother Teresa to Lord Byron, popular ballads to anonymous limericks. Samson Fox is well worth examining in more detail. Born in Bradford, his great achievement was the corrugated boiler flue which won him the gold medal of the Royal Society of Arts and the French Legion of Honour. He provided Harrogate with its first steam-powered fire engine and the rest of us with a family of very fine actors. He was also mayor of the town for three years from 1890-2, albeit not directly elected. On that score, please see the rest of the Guardian website for oodles of election coverage. We will have Newcastle's Labour leader Nick Forbes commenting here at 4pm. Saints and Sinners with the Foxes is on Sunday 6 May at 7.30. Seats bookable at www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk or 01423 502 116