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I was in the chorus of Doreen Grey at the Lowry and in Keswick and Runcorn maybe 10 years ago? I still have my toad I carried across the road!!! I was wearing a giant squirrel head at one point too… crazy but so much fun!!!

I have such happy memories of your visits and brilliantly hilarious productions to Peterborough Pub Theatre in the 1980s and in more recent years your visits to the Key Theatre Peterborough. Thank you so much for all the fun and laughter. Anne Birchenough

I've attached two photos of Maggie Burrows with Sue & Maggie taken in Nottingham in 2014. She was thrilled to take part in the show and it was a highlight of her amateur performing career. The photo where you are pulling faces was Maggie’s screen saver on her iPad ever since. We have followed Lip Service from the very beginning and have seen almost every production. She loved performing and Lip Service inspired her to venture into Improvisation comedy in the last few years. Tragically, Maggie passed away unexpectedly in May whilst being treated for leukaemia. Including her photo(s) in your Celebration and Archives would be a fitting tribute to her and Lip Service. Anne Lindlay

I fIrst saw you lovely pair in Theatr Clywd Mold in 1989. I drove over from Anglesey. Was it Withering Looks? Surely it was. I was enthralled and borderline obsessed ever since. Closest I ever got in person I think was Tic Toc at Marcos at Edinburgh Fringe in 1990. You did Margaret the Third. I was in a student production of The Real Inspector Hound. After that I tried to track down any shows I could see, especially when you came to the South West where I was living at the time. Sorry for sounding like such a stalker. Sad I missed Knit One Murder One, but delighted to have seen the work in progress Inspector Norse. Genuine fan! Not a stalker! Personal favourite show was probably Move Over Moriarty (saw that twice) and favourite moment was Maggie requiring Sue to bring in ALL the Baker Street Irregulars; also the chase sequence. Adored all your clever sets over the years and your wonderful corpsing and carrying on! Sorry your latest show isn't coming down to Southampton where I now reside. Thanks for the memories. Jon

Hello Sue These are photos of Sue and I taken by our son. They are the poster from B Road Movie and a still that I acquired from the Atkinson in Southport. It was 27th September 1995 our first date and we came to see you knowing nothing. We became hooked both to each other and to your shows. We have seen you in such exotic locations as Blackpool, Port Sunlight and even Ormskirk! As you maybe able to see we like to practice our withering looks. We 3 (son Aidan, Sue and I) will be celebrating 30 years by seeing you at the Unity in Liverpool. Thank you for all the laughter and condolences on your loss Love Dave

Dear lovely Lip Service People. Many congratulations on your well-deserved award I first encountered The Magnificent Two at Watersmeet, Rickmansworth for King Arthur and the Knights of the Magnificent Round Table which featured a lot of changes of costume in a hillock centre stage. Then went to Greenwich little theatre and Lyric Hammersmith for Withering Looks all unique and smashing productions especially for anyone coming in late!! Best wishes Pip (Pip Jacobs)

It was a proud moment. My dance teacher, Ruth Jones, said Lip Service needed some dancers for 'Mr Darcy loses the plot.' I loved every moment. The fact that everyone was so lovely and normal throughout our work together made it feel far less scary. Everyone was just doing their job. No one was a prima donna. There was a real sense of co-operation and care - a rarity in a business that is so often beset by overblown egos. - and then, to come to a show and see myself in the film that provided a backdrop to one of the scenes in a very funny, professional show, was - well, my proud moment. Bonnie Meekum

Withering Looks poster on pinboard since 1992, Michele Rashman

Dear Sue, Following your invitation to send some memories of 40 years of LipService I am sending you a collage of all my programmes which I have collected of all - or at least a great many - of your productions right from „Girls in Orbit“ onwards. I was and am a big fan and introduced many of my friends to LipService over the years who all became fans, too. We all loved the variety, inventiveness and a certain „whackiness“ of LipService shows. The other picture represents a memory of an event in Chorlton - was it your 25th anniversary? I remember winning the wonderful „Desperate to be Doris“ tea towel in a raffle at this event - Maggie asked me onto the stage to choose my prize and some German was spoken 🤣. Needless to say, the tea towel is a treasured possession. It is so wonderful that you have been awarded money for a heritage project to create a legacy to LipService and the unforgettable Maggie Fox. I wish you all the best for the project. If you are still short of volunteers - get in touch - perhaps I could help in some way? My days as Goethe-Institut librarian are long gone, but certain skills might still be useful? Kind regards Gabi Reinsch

Kerry Coyler

Dear Sue Thank you for a wonderful show at Pocklington Arts Centre last night! It was so interesting to hear more about the 40 years of LipService and I am sure Maggie would have loved it. The evening was a really beautiful tribute to your ground breaking career together. You asked for people's memories for the Memory Book and here is my special one: In November 2013 Inspector Norse came to Pockllington Arts Centre. At that time, I was one of the many volunteers involved in the Arts Centre and that night I was on auditorium duty. As I arrived, clutching my knitted leaves we had been asked to make for a tree on the set, Janet Farmer, the Manager, said that you had asked for a member of the staff to appear on stage with them and would I be willing to do this. Naturally, I leapt at the chance! I had to hover in the wings after the interval and wait for Maggie to tell me when to go on. My job was to appear as a grumpy member of the staff, very cross about all the noise. I had no words, but Maggie told me to look stern and shake my head with disapproval. I put on my best Paddington Stare, hopefully looked suitably cross and hopefully gave the performance of my life. I loved it!! So thank you for all the wonderful plays and that very special memory. All best wishes Sheila Smith

Dear Sue, My memory of working with you and Maggy is the production of Desperate to be Doris when I was part of the choir. Not just the choir but appearing as a dancing daffodil complete with head-dress. We certainly got a few laughs for our geriatric take on Busby Berkeley. It was a joy to work with you both and Jules Gibb. Much love Hazel Roy

I chose the pink nightie (of course) GOES WITH NIGHTIE PIC The high spot of my acting career appearing in a starring role as a daffodil. Such happy and hilarious times! GOES WITH DAFF PIC Stephen Broughton

Dear Sue, Hello, I wanted to write to you because my wife and I saw your show in Pocklington last night. We met briefly and though there was so much I wanted to say to you as ever in these situations there was so little I actually managed to say. We came across Lip Service in the early 90s, drawn to your shows by the literary link, (I am a librarian and so am naturally drawn to anything linked to books). We were drawn to your work immediately. Your shows were wonderfully silly and subversive, very witty, very clever, wonderfully creatIve. We loved the way you combined film, clever sets and your brilliant performances. Every year I would check what you were up to, to see if we could get to whatever show was on. Over the years we have seen lots of your shows and you brought us endless joy and laughter. Our personal favourite was Inspector Norse. We loved the knitted set, the moose, your use of crispbread to mimic walking in the snow, the knitted fireworks We were both really upset when we heard about Maggie's death. I cannot imagine how hard it was for you to loose your creative "other half". However I am glad that you found the courage to put together last nights show which was really very, very good. Laughter and tears. I hope you will continue to find ways to express yourself creatively in whatever way is right for you. We wish you well, and again thank you and all your team for everything. Carol and June

Fringe Programme, The Red House, Newcastle upon Tyne 1985 sent by Jim Fowler

Hi Sue, I feel as though Lip Service punctuated key moments throughout my adult life. I first saw them as an undergraduate at Newcastle University doing Withering Looks in the Gulbenkian Studio, it must have been that striking poster that first caught my attention combined with a abiding love of the Kate Bush song. Cut to five or so years later when I saw them doing Move over Moriarty at the Edinburgh Festival with my then partner (sadly long passed away). Then living in Stoke on Trent, for a while they were regular visitors to the New Vic theatre in Newcastle under Lyme (Women on the Verger and Hector's House, possibly others). Several years later when on holiday with my mother in a remote part of Northumberland I was excited to see they were due to perform Jane Bond in Alnwick. Mum also became a fan and I would book her tickets for shows at the Wolsey in Ipswich and she would get the train from Norwich for a matinée. Now living in Manchester I've taken several friends a long time shows in Oldham, Salford and the city centre. Always a joy to watch, the inventive sets and props were a delight but my treasured memory is of the way that Maggie could bring the house down with a single look and a raised eyebrow. Very best wishes for your 40th year. Rob Woods

Dear Sue, Huge congratulations!!!! There are so many special moments from so many shows. Here are my top 5! 1. Being privileged to be crowded into Studio 2 at the Actors Centre to watch the first run through of your first iteration of Brontes. Laughing so hard Noreen looked at me strangely. 2. Seeing my good friend Hazel with her daffodil headdress on in Doris at the Library Theatre. 3. Being with you and Maggie after you had seen my 3 Musketeers and you saying "we are doing Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - all of them! " I asked, how are you doing the Knights and you demonstrated the genius table. I giggled all the way through in anticipation of that moment then actually choked laughing when it happened. Giles was in that night and his laughter and mine was quite hysterical. 4. Moriarty, I think when you had the male dummy! 'Ohhhhh John'. My partner and I used that image and phrase for many a year....even though he was called Steve! 5. Giving you The Stage Door Award at the Man Theatre Awards. My partner used to sponsor that and it was the best award ever made. THANK YOU!!! For 40 years of genius ... 40 yrs omg how did that happen. All best wishes Caroline

Loved doing Desperate to be Doris in Runcorn,we also went to see it as a group to the Lowry in Manchester. I was a daffodil & played the plastic cups in the office scene....Shirley Thomas.

A Romantic and Ridiculous Weekend in Buxton Back in 2007, I was a smitten young(ish) chap, newly besotted with my girlfriend Harriet—now my wife, mind you—and eager to impress her with a weekend getaway that screamed “romantic geek.” Our destination? Buxton, with a nerdy pitstop at Jodrell Bank to gawk at the Lovell Telescope. We booked into the Old Hall Hotel, a charming spot just a stone’s throw from the Buxton Opera House. Being theatre buffs, we checked the listings and struck gold: LipService Theatre, the comedic duo of Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding, were performing their riotous Jane Bond that very night. The show, set in a cash-strapped 2012 where MI6, bled dry by Olympic overspending, swaps James Bond for Jane Bond—a job-sharing single mum of three—was a hoot. Maggie Fox strutted about in a black PVC catsuit as Jane, while Sue Ryding juggled roles like Blowdry, a villain hell-bent on derailing the London Olympics with, presumably, a lethal hairdryer. We snagged a private box at the Opera House, complete with a bottle of fizz that made us feel positively 007-esque. The comedy was relentless—slapstick, silly, and stuffed with gags that had us cackling like hyenas. I hadn’t laughed that hard since my uncle got stuck in a deckchair at a family barbecue. The Old Hall sweetened the deal with a clever dining setup: starter and main course before the show, then back for pudding afterward, which felt like a deliciously civilised intermission. The whole evening was pure magic, etched in our memories as the night we fell head over heels for LipService’s brand of bonkers brilliance. We became diehard fans, catching their shows whenever we could, even joining their Comfortable Shoes chorus years later after moving to Harrogate. You never forget your ‘first time’, and so Jane Bond remained unbeatable to us; to this day, we can’t mention Loughborough University without calling it “Loo-boo-roo,” thanks to Maggie’s quip about a fictional degree in basket weaving. That weekend in Buxton? A perfect blend of love, laughs, and a licence to chuckle. Peet Morris

Saw B Road Movie with my sister in Burton on Trent at the Brewhouse, must have been early 90's? There were so many manic moments but the bit where Maggie Fox played a waitress in an american diner is still with us today. There's a scene where she's listlessly wiping a table with a grubby looking cloth. My sister and I had tears running down our faces and we still regularly recreate that moment. No words are said but we both know what's happening as soon as that cloth comes out. Good luck with the project. Denise and Janice.

Hello, I have a chum, Sue, who took me to one of your shows at the Rose Theatre in Ormskirk, many years ago, I think it was Vicars on the Verger or an Aga Saga. The one where the little car drives off into the sunset. Initially I thought 'why, they are all utterly bonkers!' I was so glad because I had found something that was right up my street, outrageously bokers, and so funny. I was not alone... oh no, as I looked round the auditorium I had found 'my people' they were all laughing too, my jaw hurt so muchfrom laughing and it was wonderful. It is difficult to tell others who are not 'our people' about your shows.... just how to? They would not understand......but what a gift you have, to make us 'your people ' laugh and laugh. From then on my chum Sue and myself came to see you as often as we could. Our health has deteriorated over these years. Sue in particular has struggled with her mobiliy, myself, hmph. But when we meet up we always recall our great, bokers nights watching Lip Service... yes, weve seen them all.. Thank you you utterly bonkers people. Kate Brady

This was the first show of yours that I saw in Bury St Edmunds Suffolk along with my late mum and friends. We laughed so much we ached. It’s particularly poignant for me as my mum used to sing Que Sera Sera to my sister and I from when we were little….so it was very fitting to play it at her funeral sung by the original Doris. Such happy memories of all your productions bringing such unbridled joy to so many audiences. Thank you Debbie Adams

Hello Sue and congratulations. I was in 3 of your shows and had a wonderful time with you all. I especially liked the take on of Annie get your Gun the Dare to be Doris.My grandaughters were in the audience one night and as I saw them i pretended to shoot them. They nearly fell off their seats with laughing. I have also seen all your shows and stole your sailing ships idea for a panto I directed this year for Dick Whittington, I can never forget you both. Beryl Cowen

Hi there, My favourite memory has to be the evening i brought my husband to see 'Strangers on a train set'. I could tell upon arrival that he was wondering what the hell i'd brought him to, mainly because he was initially the only bloke in the bar, wasn't pissed or glugging prosecco. I'd been many times to see the two of you perform but usually with the girls etc. To say he loved the show is an understatement, he was literally weeping with laughter in places. It was his suggestion to watch 'Chateau Ghoul' during lockdown when lets face it, the laughs were few and far between! The two of you lightened many a dull day and i'm looking forward to seeing you later in the year in Colne. Thank you Fiona (Fiona Banks)

The Picture of Doreen Gray Oldham Coliseum Community Choir

Hello My first show was Inspector Norse. Once I realised the lady on stage was part of the show and not just a props person I thoroughly enjoyed the off-beat humour. My abiding memory has to be those silver platform boots!! So Abba-esque! Wonderful comedy. Vest wishes Brenda Smith

Hi sue and gang. Sorry I have no photo or vid.....but I have a good memory of seeing "Hector's house", your Greek comedy in 2003, at Manchesters library theatre. I went with my "then" creative writing group. It was memorable because, ....during the interval, I fashioned a Greek sailing vessel, from the paper and crayons you left for the audience in the foyer.....after the interval, yourself and Maggie did the judging and I was ecstatic to hear my name called when you chose my ship. I TOTALLY IGNORED...the audiences laughter at my hard work producing the model. I won a Greek yogurt and a [balaclava...which I returned at t he end of the show...[ just wasn't my colour]. We loved the performance.. We also came to see "the importance of being earnest" lip service style. [The year before] Thanks for entertaining us through the years. Much sadness for the loss of lovely Maggie. My partner and I also enjoyed..Jane bond...manchester. Very little women [Oldham].... .Inspector norse..[sale].....great stuff. Kind regards Elsa gee.

I first encountered Lip Service on Radio 4 I think whilst living in a grotty bedsit in Cheltenham so that would be 1982/3/4 (but you'll tell me I've got the date wrong) somewhere in the various boxes of cassettes I should still have a recording of one of the shows. I've since seen you all over the place seeing the same show multiple times when I wanted to introduce others. In fact having encountered my wife on an internet dating site we first met at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale where I think you were performing my favourite Move Over Moriarty, thank you for helping me hit it off with the most compatibly weird woman I've ever met. Phil C (Phil Coogan)