ONE of Glasgow' s best loved theatre's celebrated its 70th anniversary with a celebrity line-up.

The Citizens Theatre Company notched up seven decades in its Gorbals home in Glasgow with an invited audience of actors, current and former staff and friends of the company.

Former and current stars of the Citzs including Celia Imrie, Rupert Everett, Miles Jupp, Maureen Beattie, Ron Donachie, Ann Mitchell and Fidelis Morgan took the stage to perform extracts of some of the plays which have made the Citizens Theatre famous and share their memories of the theatre.

Giles Havergal, one of the three artistic leaders of the Citizens Theatre alongside Robert David Macdonald and Philip Prowse under whose leadership the Citizens Theatre flourished, performed extracts from his adaptation of Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene.

He described the production from 1989 as ‘truly among the happiest days of my life.’

Some of the Citizens’ most notorious productions have been performances of Hamlet, and the audience was treated to performances by Brian Ferguson (Hamlet, 2014), Peter Guinness (Claudius, 2014), Andy Clark (Hamlet, 2006), Cal MacAninch (Hamlet, 1996), video contributions from Henry Ian Cusick (Hamlet, 1993) and David Hayman (Hamlet, 1975 & 1970) and a live appearance by John Cairney, the Citizens’ first Hamlet in 1960, and as a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, formerly known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the first Scottish-trained actor to perform the role.

The audience also heard an exclusive first performance of ‘Us Two’, one of the brand new songs by Deacon Blue front man Ricky Ross written for new Scottish musical The Choir, opening at the Citizens Theatre on October 29, 2015.

Founded in 1943 by James Bridie, the Citzs moved into the 1878-built theatre at 119 Gorbals Street formerly known as The Royal Princesses’ Theatre.