A DANCER who starred on stage and screen and appeared alongside the great names of a generation has died at her home.

Former West End performer Barbara Evans, who danced alongside Gene Kelly and appeared in Hancock’s Half Hour: The Ladies Man, passed away peacefully on Sunday at her home in Martin Hussingtree, near Worcester, after what a friend described as a “long illness”.

In The Ladies Man she appeared alongside Hancock and Carry On star Sid James as a fantasy dancer whisked off her feet by Hancock.

She also worked alongside James in Bless this House and Carry On Up the Khyber and had film work in Melba, Heavens Above and Seven Days and appeared in The Avengers.

Miss Evans, who was in her mid-70s when she died, was born in Birmingham and made more than 500 TV appearances with David Nixon, Harry Worth, Lionel Blair and also appeared on the late night David Frost satire show.

Her career got off to an auspicious start when at the age of nine she won a five-year Royal Academy Scholarship to study ballet and secured a place in the chorus line of the touring company of The Dancing Years.

She went on to become the principal dancer in musicals at the London Palladium and Prince of Wales, beginning a career which took her to Hollywood, New York and Hawaii.

In an article in your Worcester News in March 1986, she described Hancock as a “genius” and said it was an honour to work with him, describing it as “a wonderful experience”. Her glittering career was cut short by a car crash in which she broke her pelvis, left leg, right arm, dislocated her hip and suffered facial injuries.

She was told she would never dance again and could not walk for many months.

Hoever, she made a good recovery and was able to teach dancing, setting up one of Worcester’s most successful dance schools in 1974 with many of her students going on to dance professionally.

She taught dancing under the Barbara Evans School of Dance and later under a school called Extensions at the St Martin’s parish centre in London Road, opening offshoots at Perdiswell Young People’s Leisure Club and at Chawson Barns in Droitwich.

She was first married to the international jazz trombone player Harry Roche and was a vocalist with his band in cabaret in London, Paris and Germany. Her second marriage was to TV director/producer Patrick Johns.

Her funeral is at St Martin’s Church, Martin Hussingtree on Monday at 10.30am, followed by a private cremation.

The church service at 10.30am will be open but the cremation is private.