Mr Tasker

Mr Tasker was a Sun Rise Tours employee who manned the tour desk at Manchester Airport. In 1990, he dealt with an increasingly impatient Derek and Mavis Wilton when their travel agent Rosamund Travel went bankrupt without issuing their tickets for a flight to Madeira.

Unable to locate their tickets among a pile at the desk, Mr Tasker was perplexed by the Wiltons' story, in which the couple had bought the holiday (or rather, a letter of entitlement from the travel agent) from Alec Gilroy when he was told by his doctor not to fly due to an ear infection. Mr Tasker muddied the waters further by referring to the Wiltons as Mr and Mrs Gilroy, a mistake he continued to make throughout his dealings the couple despite their emphatic corrections. Having traced the error to Rosamund Travel, Mr Tasker tried to get in touch with the manager Mr Wilkinson by phone, but got no answer by closing time and so the Wiltons missed their flight.

In the morning, Mr Tasker resumed his quest to locate the erstwhile Mr Wilkinson, eventually getting through to the man at home. Mr Wilkinson promised to make his way to the airport immediately to sort out the matter, but he never turned up, causing the Wiltons to also miss that evening's flight. In his last conversation with the couple, who had slept overnight at the airport, Mr Tasker informed them that Mr Wilkinson had disappeared and they wouldn't get their money back. He left them with food for thought, commenting that Alec Gilroy must have been born under a lucky star to have palmed off a dud holiday.