Her world-famous Bluecoats helped launch the careers of Shane Ritchie, Bobby Davro and Bradley Walsh.
But Pontins, once a much-loved part of British family holidays, is now in the midst of a deep crisis.
In its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, the business flourished with hoards of British families excitedly loading up their cars to head to one of its 30 parks scattered across the country.
Now there are only three left who are clinging to survive.
If Britannia owners have been left in any doubt about the public’s perception of the Pontins, then a recent poll in which it was voted Britain’s worst holiday resort will be a startling wake-up call.
Pontins at the Spanish style Riviera Hotel in Weymouth on a hot sunny day in 1987
The famous blue-coat cabaret entertainers at Pontins Holiday Camp circa 1993
People watch a beauty pageant at Middleton Tower Holiday Camp near Morecambe in the 1950s. The Pontins site was closed in 1993
A man and woman take to the dance floor during Pontins ‘Rhythm Riot Weekend’ at the now closed Camber Sands venue in Sussex
Sir Fred Pontin first launched Pontins in 1946, offering half-board and self-catering holidays with entertainment in resorts across the country.
The Pontins in Pakefield, Suffolk (pictured in 2009) is one of only three remaining parks today
The results of the Which? the survey will make for uncomfortable reading for the company’s multi-millionaire boss, Andrew Langsam.
Customer service, cleanliness, quality of accommodation, food and drink and value for money were all awarded only two stars.
It’s a brutal assessment for a place that will hold fond memories for many Brits and a distant cry of Langsam’s promise to dust the parks with some Disney-style fairy dust.
“It’s not the brains of Britain,” the tycoon boasted to The Guardian in 2011, having just parted with £20m to get Pontins out of administration.
“I’m planning to put some razzmatazz into it,” he croaked with £25m set aside to inject much-needed life into the parks.
Yet in the nearly decade and a half since Britannia’s takeover, it’s been goofier than Mickey Mouse with a hotel chain that couldn’t stop the decline.
Family accommodation at Pontins holiday camp in the 1980s when the brand was Butlins’ UK getaway rival
Britannia Hotels Group bought Pontin’s out of administration for a reported £20m in 2011
A group of enthusiasts on a cottage balcony at the Rockabilly Weekend at Pontins, Camber Sands, East Sussex, in June 2013
Members of the Bluecoat Cabaret take part in a balloon sketch at one of the Pontins holiday parks in the 1980s
Guests outside the cottages at Pontins Holiday Camp, Osmington Bay, Dorset, in 1958
Prestatyn in North Wales and Camber Sands in Sussex were closed immediately without warning at the end of November last year.
Two months later, Southport in Merseyside was added to the Pontins cemetery, where bosses blamed flooding caused by Storm Hank for the closure.
Employees claimed they were told by text at eleven o’clock that their jobs no longer existed.
As EDF staff will be housed at Brean Sands Park in Somerset for the next three years while work is carried out on the new nuclear power station, it means families have a choice of two parks: Pakefield in Suffolk; Sand Bay, in Weston-super-Mare.
The demise is as surprising and swift as one of Pontins’ waterslides.
There were also rumors online that 1,600 migrants were supposed to be living in Prestatyn and Camber Sands parks rather than happy families enjoying a holiday.
The Home Office strongly denied the rumors and claimed that MailOnline had no plans to use them.
Langsam – nicknamed the ‘Asylum King’ – raised an estimated £248m through Britannia Hotels, has lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers at its 60 sites – at least 17 of which are said to have been booked.
Tycoon Alex Langsam made an estimated £248 million through Britannia Hotels, which were handed lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers.
The owners of Southport Park, pictured in 2020, said in a statement “after assessing the future viability of the park, we have come to the difficult decision to close our doors”
The derelict former Pontins Holiday Park in Hemsby, Norfolk was eerily displayed in 2014, six years after declining numbers caused it to close.
Once a much-loved holiday getaway in the UK, it has been blighted by a series of closures over the past few decades
The hotel tycoon founded the company in 1976 by buying the Britannia Country House Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester.
The businessman has previously boasted about Britannia’s role in safeguarding the future of some of Britain’s most historic hotels, including the Adelphi in Liverpool – which was used by passengers on the Titanic – and the Grand in Scarborough.
However, the Britannia is now notorious for its Basil Fawlty-style service and has been named the worst hotel chain for eleven years in a row.
His entry in Which? the list of the best and worst hotels in the country also reads badly: “Dilapidated, filthy and once again the worst hotel chain in the UK. Avoid at all costs.”
Sir Fred Pontin first launched Pontins in 1946, offering half-board and self-catering holidays with entertainment at resorts across the country.
In the 1960s the business flourished and Sir Fred’s eyes began to wander abroad. In 1963 he founded Pontinental and with it came a number of holiday villages in Spain, Mallorca, Sardinia, Ibiza, Greece, Morocco and Yugoslavia.
In 1978 Pontins was sold to the Coral Group for £56 million and has since gone through a series of new owners before being rescued by Britannia in 2011 when it went into administration.
MailOnline has contacted Britannia Hotels for comment.