Norman Hill

Norman Hill was the photographer employed by Newton & Ridley to take the cover photograph of the Rovers Return Inn for the first issue of their new in-house magazine Over the Bar. Annie Walker broke the news of his appointment to an excited Betty Turpin and Bet Lynch, giving the opinion that the shot chosen would be one that best represented "the personality...the beating heart of this establishment" and obviously had herself in mind. Both she and Bet made a special effort to get dolled-up for the session and Bet was ready to turn on her feminine charms when the slightly weedy Mr Hill made his disappointing entrance, late due to problems with some bridal pictures in his shop on Albert Road.

Annie dragooned him into the back room to give him a glass of her special sherry and to give him her opinion on the difference between elegance, as typified by herself, and the common cleavage of people like Bet. He duly spent time in the public, snapping away as the customers were served. Annie and Bet posed for all they were worth while Betty politely refused to get involved, nevertheless Norman did manage to get one candid snap of her serving Eddie Yeats. Bet also chatted up Norman, hinting how much she would like one of her pictures to make the cover, while Annie brought in the big guns and rang Richard Cresswell at the brewery who agreed that the chosen cover should not be too "flamboyant".

The next day, Betty accused Bet of going out with Norman, a married man, when she saw the two of them together in his car on Gallipoli Street but Bet insisted he had merely been giving her a lift home. Norman brought along a sample of the pictures for them all to see and later on a copy of the finished magazine arrived. Annie and Bet opened the envelope with some trepidation and were put out to see that the candid shot of Betty had made the cover. Bet was particularly livid as she had given Norman him two hours of her life.

He later made the mistake of reappearing in the Rovers to ask Bet to go to the Gatsby Club with him, offering her some of the enlarged pictures he had taken of her "really cheap". She told him to go and walk in the canal and "keep walking 'til yer 'at starts to float." Norman was annoyed and cancelled his plan, unknown to Bet, to send the pictures of her to Tit-Bits Magazine in London. Eddie wondered if she should be told but Betty said sharply that it was her own fault.