Glenn Miller Orchestra at Pavilion Theatre, Worthing

“To do that you have got to have something pretty special,” says Ray, who keeps the Miller flag flying with his Glenn Miller Orchestra.

The orchestra will be offering their Glenn Miller Big Band Show at Worthing’s Pavilion Theatre on Sunday, August 26, at 7.45pm.

With vocalists Catherine Sykes and Colin Anthony, the Moonlight Serenaders and the Uptown Hall Gang, the orchestra will relive the spirit of the 1940s, paying tribute to Ted Heath, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin alongside all your Miller favourites.

To honour Glenn’s USAAF Band, the cast perform the second half of the show in US Army Air Force uniforms.

“It’s just the magic of Glenn Miller,” says Ray, reflecting on the bandleader’s enduring popularity.

“You have to put it down to Glenn. People just love that Miller sound. For about five years we were going to Japan on six-to-seven week tours, and everybody loved it. They all loved Moonlight Serenade. It’s a worldwide thing.

“You have got to bear in mind that back in those days there were other great bands around, but all those bands were never as popular as Glenn.

“I think he was also a great personality. He was very careful what he did. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself, and he just rolled on.

“I had a few guys in the band that had worked with Glenn in the early days, and they were telling me that he was a hard man to deal with.

“He was a very hard taskmaster.

“He would spend a whole hour on one arrangement, just trying to get it the way he wanted it – more vibrato from the saxophones or whatever.

“He used to drive the members of the band crazy. A perfectionist. That’s what he was.”

Tickets can be booked online from www.worthingtheatres.co.uk.