The T&A story of Billy Pearce and members of the Cinderella panto cast visiting Bradford Royal Infirmary, reminded Wilsden reader Baron Owen of the occasion in January 1948 when the pantomime being presented at the Alhambra was also Cinderella, Wilfred Pickles playing the part of Buttons.

Baron said: “I was nine years old at that time and was sledging (against my mother’s orders) in the fields at Fairweather Green.

“I went down the hill rather too quickly and ended up in the icy waters of Bradford Beck, badly breaking my right arm, which resulted in an operation and a lengthy stay in the BRI.

“I was in the men’s ward, and on hearing that Wilfred Pickles was visiting the hospital, I was ‘dared’ by the other patients to shout out, ‘Give him the money Barney’, when he came on the ward.

“At that time this was Wilfred’s catchphrase from his radio programme Have A Go. Being the cheeky lad that I was, I called out, as instructed, when Wilfred passed, which resulted in him coming over to me and having some fun with the radio headphones and a stethoscope.

“My arm never completely healed – I still have the scars and the deformed bone to show for it. It also resulted in me being exempt from National Service after failing the medical.”

Although I wasn’t born when Wilfred Pickles made his visit, I recall listening to Have a Go in the 1950s when Barney had been replaced with Mable, Wilfred’s wife.

The Halifax-born broadcaster and actor, who also played Tom Courtenay’s irascible dad in Billy Liar, had three Have A Go catchphrases – ‘Give him/her the money, Mabel, “Are you courting?’ and ‘Good neet and cheerio’.

His wife, Mabel, had replaced Calverley-born Barney Colehan, producer of Pickles’s show, and later producer of TV’s The Good Old Days.

And Pickles made no attempt to disguise his Yorkshire accent.