Ron Rogers

Ron Rogers was an impresario who gave Alec Gilroy his start in providing shipboard entertainment on cruises in 1991.

When Ron was asked to supply six artistes for a Christmas cruise around the Caribbean, he accepted a small retainer and offered the contract to Alec, a fellow talent agent who specialised in novelty acts. Increasingly dissatisfied with being a mere pub landlord, Alec grabbed the opportunity, hoping to use it to relaunch his career in showbusiness. Additional satisfaction arose from the the fact that Ron - a man Alec secretly disliked - had come crawling to him for talent.

Alec found the six acts without much trouble but had greater difficulty recruiting a master of ceremonies as his first choice, Archie Archer, turned him down for panto. A week after taking on the job, having signed the contract with the cruise company, Alec called Ron's wife Dusty and asked for her husband to get in touch urgently. Ron paid a visit to the Rovers Return where he agreed to supply Alec with an MC from his books. However, prompted by a suggestion by Ron Alec decided to fill the vacancy himself and thus save himself a wage packet. Ron had made the comment half-jokingly, not expecting Alec to take up the idea as it would entail leaving Bet to run the Rovers by herself over Christmas, but when he saw the gleam in Alec's eye, Ron laughed manically, knowing that his mind had been made up.

A few days before Alec was due to leave, Ron called at the Rovers to wish him bon voyage and remind him to send a filthy postcard. As Alec wasn't around, Ron left the message with Bet, thus revealing to the unsuspecting landlady that her husband was leaving her to cope with their busiest trade of the year while he spent Christmas in the sunshine.

1991

 * Fri 6th Nov
 * Fri 13th Nov
 * Wed 18th Nov