When the stars turned out at the Co-op

CHRIS ROBINSON HEARS A PHOTOGRAPHER'S TALES

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THANKS to Roy Perring for these gems. Roy served as a staff photographer for the Plymouth Coop during the 1980s and recalls a time when the Theatre Royal was working hard to building up a following and was happy to get visiting stars involved in local promotions.

Roy writes: "One of the ways of getting extra press coverage and reaching the punter in the street was by 'celebrity' visits to local shops.

"I think they worked alongside Dingles/House of Fraser first but soon struck up a relationship with Cooperative House, just across the road (Royal Parade) from the theatre itself.

"The manager of the department store at that time was Steve Golding. It would have been Steve's staff who liaised with the Theatre Royal to arrange the visits.

"Not all were theatre tie-ins, though, and in 1984 Lionel Blair attracted a large crowd to launch the new menswear department. Lionel had flown in from Spain, very suntanned.

"Later that year, Noele Gordon looked in at a window display that was a tribute to her."

Roy confessed that he wasn't a big fan of 'Crossroads, "and so I wasn't expecting to be impressed," he adds. "However, large crowds turned out, wanting to meet Meg Richardson."