FORMER England captain David Beckham was voted Southampton’s joint most popular celebrity from the last 100 years – along with American pin-up Marilyn Monroe.

Golden Balls and Ms Monroe came ahead of other household names including Twiggy, Charlie Chaplin and Bob Dylan.

Southampton residents named The Wizard of Oz their favourite film followed by The Shawshank Redmption and then The Godfather and Pulp Fiction. 

Away from the silver screen The Phantom of the Opera took the gong for most popular musical, rather than other classics including Mary Poppins and Les Miserables.

Daily Echo: Marilyn Monroe.

As well as popular culture, the study, carried out by online fancy dress retailer Fancy Dress Ball to discover the UK’s favourite decade, also looked at the most significant historical events of the last century according to the public.

Women gaining the vote topped the study in Southampton when respondents were asked what the most significant historical events were, and then closely followed by the moon landing and the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

The fancy dress retailer has developed an interactive online map and postcode checker which shows users the popular decades for fancy dress costumes in their area– now you can see whether Aunty Sybil really is trapped in the ‘40s!

The study also found:

• Mary Poppins was voted as the top musical in 15 cities across the UK

• Male respondents chose Charlie Chaplin as their favourite celebrity of the last century, as did 1 in 5 Londoners

• Less than 1 per cent of women thought the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 was a significant historical event

• Twice as many men as women voted for Pulp Fiction as their favourite film

• 40 per cent of people in Yorkshire voted the moon landing as the most significant historical event: the only region to do so.

• David Beckham was the favourite celebrity of voters in the North East

• 7 of 12 regions surveyed voted for the discovery of the structure of DNA as the most significant historical event.

Paul Howcroft of Fancy Dress Ball said: “Decades fancy dress continues to remain a popular choice for party goers and fund raisers.

“Customers of all ages can relate to some of the best loved characters from the decades.

"The 70s and 80s have inspired some of the most popular fancy dress costumes to date. People will always want to dress as Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Freddie Mercury as these characters as many of us aspire to be them.

“We put together the decade’s postcode checker to show people how much the nation is still in love with fancy dress and to compare their cultures.

"The team have found some amazing statistics that just show that no city is the same when it comes to their love for the decades.”