THE effects of the Manchester bombings made Coronation Street star Bill Tarmey late for his important date to switch on the Barrow Christmas lights 25 years ago.
Bill played the schemer Jack Duckworth and had to rush to Furness on December 4 in 1992 after the terrorist attack delayed filming on the Granada TV soap.
He reached the Dalton Road Gazebo for 8.15pm to meet mayor Joyce Fleet and say to the waiting fans: "Sorry I'm late."
To get the show started, the honour of turning on the lights had passed to Leslie McLeese, 12, and the mayor's granddaughters Penny, nine, and Gill, eight.
After a whistle-stop tour through Furness, the Mail caught up with Bill at Ulverston's Hillfoot Hotel.
He told a reporter he had spent a fortnight in Barrow as an 18-year-old working on a roofing job in Barrow docks.
He said: "All I did was winge because I wanted to get back home to my girlfriend in Manchester so I never saw much of Barrow."
Mr Tarmey first appeared in Coronation Street in 1979 and was a regular from 1983.
He was born in Ardwick, Manchester, and died at the age of 71 on November 9 in 2012.
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