Fred Clark

Fred Clark was a crooked drayman who worked for Newton & Ridley. In September 1961 he made one of his regular deliveries to the Rovers Return Inn where, under orders from Annie Walker, new barmaid Nona Willis checked that he had completed his delivery and gave him a pint of best bitter on the house. He tried to chat up the unimpressed girl who easily repulsed his advances when he offered to take her to the Palais de Danse, though she was shocked to see that his money included a crisp five-pound note in his wallet.

Later in the day, Jack Walker went through the list of empties that Clark had collected and in place of the twelve soda siphons that should have been on the inventory only four were shown. Against Annie's advice, Jack decided not to report the man to the brewery but confront him himself instead, knowing that he would return to collect the aforementioned wallet that he had left on the bar.

As predicted Clark returned a couple of days later for his wallet but Jack refused to hand it over until he had sorted the matter out. As well as the discrepancy with the siphons, the inventory also showed 144 empty half-pint bottles whereas it should have been 168. Jack told the man he had been in the game too long to be fiddled and refused to hand over the wallet until Clark signed an amended receipt. Clark tried to push his way over the bar to collect the wallet but Bill Gregory walked into the premises and intervened, making Clark sign the docket. Clark made a show of checking the wallet to make sure everything was as it should be but Bill told him not to press his luck and sent him on his way.


 * Fred Clark was an early role in the programme for actor Jack Smethurst who later appeared intermittently between October 1980 and November 1983 as Johnny Webb, a binman colleague of Eddie Yeats.