Historic Shrewsbury hotel where the stars came to stay

The Prince Rupert Hotel - home of the stars. Temporary home, of course.

And the 1980s were a particularly golden time for the 15th century Shrewsbury hotel. In 1984 A Christmas Carol was famously filmed in the county town, and was followed by various other productions which involved famous actors staying at the Prince Rupert. There was The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Clockwise, starring John Cleese.

During the production of the BBC's The Pickwick Papers, which starred Nigel Stock, a horse-drawn carriage trying to negotiate the corner in the narrow lane by the Bear Steps near the hotel crushed an extra who was standing on the corner, happily without serious injuries.

For the production the hotel itself had a part, being turned into "The Great White Horse Inn."

Tom Baker and Anthony Andrews stayed during the making in Welshpool of The Law Lord, and Patrick Malahide was another guest during the shooting in Church Stretton of Franchise Affair.

Then in the late 1970s there was Richard Burton and Billy Connolly, who were filming the movie Absolution at Ellesmere.

Pop stars too, like The Supremes, albeit without Diana Ross, football clubs - Chelsea, Crystal Palace, and Liverpool - and away from the entertainment world, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was a guest in December 1981, and Monica Lewinsky, who came in 1999 when she was promoting an authorised biography which gave her side of the story of her relationship with American president Bill Clinton.

Not all the guests were well behaved. The Jam stayed once and smashed the bedrooms up.

But back to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The big star was George C Scott who on arrival emerged from Shrewsbury Railway Station, failed to see, or ignored, the chauffeur-driven limo waiting for him, and walked unrecognised through the town to the Prince Rupert.

In a past interview with us, David Woollam, who was assistant manager of the Prince Rupert Hotel back then, going on to run the Corner House restaurant in Ellesmere, shared some of his memories of those exciting times in the county town.

Apart from the cast there were people like make-up artists, producers, and directors, whom he would get to know during their stay of about six weeks or so. He bought a book of Spitting Image caricatures of the characters in A Christmas Carol, and asked the actors and film crew staying at the hotel to sign their autographs by the caricatures.

George C Scott, who was playing the part of Scrooge, had a reputation of being a bit of a hellraiser, but there was no sign of that during his Shrewsbury stay.

"He hid in his bedroom all the time it was being shot after the first night, because he got a bit mobbed. He wanted to be left alone to learn the lines," David would recall.

"On Friday nights, because there was no shooting on a Saturday, the producer, director, George C Scott and the scriptwriter used to play poker in the games room.

"After shooting finished he came downstairs with his head shaved - he was off to film a second Patton film in Italy - and held a party for the staff in the lounge, buying us all drinks as a thank you."

David's wife-to-be Jane worked in the restaurant. He said the Prince Rupert was the premier hotel in Shrewsbury, and the restaurant was itself a big draw.

"The restaurant filled the bedrooms, rather than the bedrooms filling the restaurant. The food was exceptional and the service was second to none," he said.