PICKING up on last week's theatre ghost theme, Chris Coffey of the Sutton Historical Society adds some fascinating extra detail.

Working from memory (his extensive archival material is still packed away after all the hectic activity involved in a recent house move) Chris also passes on an unrelated story from the 1980s when the legendary Slim Ingram was Theatre Royal manager.

"I think it went back to the Second World War", says Chris, now from Holbrook Close, St Helens, "when a lady was murdered by a Serviceman who tried to hide in the theatre. He was apprehended, full of remorse." And he'd good reason for his despair, for the penalty was capital punishment in those days!

At the back of Chris's mind is a glimmering about the theatre balcony having collapsed many decades ago; or someone committing suicide by diving off it.

And he concludes: "I believe that the conflicting reports about a ghost being seen in the theatre arise because there is more than one of them. I don't think either are actually 'showbiz ghosts' ... though many acts have 'died' on that stage!"

CHRIS now hopes that readers with clearer memories will write in to keep the spooky subject alive.