| "He got the part and one evening I said to him, 'what are you going to do now you've left school, Robert?' He looked at me for a moment. 'I'm thinking of auditioning for a boy's band', he said." I am aged 82, I live in Tunstall and am married with one son and one granddaughter. My interests are creative writing, water-colour painting, local history, drama, travel etc. I am a retired teacher. Inside Lives was most enjoyable and instructive, quite fascinating!
One day in 1989 my wife and I visited an elderly lady named Bertha who lived in the Bond Street area of Tunstall, and whose mother had been a girlhood friend of both my mother and my mother in law. During conversation she asked whether anything in particular was happening at the Methodist church, which she knew we both attended.I told her I was producing a musical entertainment about the second World War, but that I was having difficulty casting the part of a young soldier coming home on leave. I'm sure my grandson Robert would do it for you, said Bertha, pointing to a picture of a lad on the mantelpiece. He likes doing things like that. A few days later I met the lad, told him what I wanted and stressed that he only had about 2 or 3 sentences to say. According to the script, I pointed out, he comes from Birmingham. 'No problem', he said, and immediately switched to a real authentic Brummy accent. He got the part and one evening I said to him, 'what are you going to do now you've left school, Robert?' He looked at me for a moment. 'I'm thinking of auditioning for a boy's band', he said. 'What's it called?' I asked him. 'Take That', he replied and I laughed, 'that's a daft name to start with'.
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