OH, no, it wasn't - says East Lancashire conjuror Trevor Dawson of the dubious claim which Looking Back aired earlier this month that Blackburn was the home town of the famous music hall magician Chung Ling Soo, who died after being shot on stage in London on 1918 when the bullet-defying trick he originated went wrong.

And chartered surveyor Trevor should know as he is working on a book all about the old-time "Chinaman" - whose real name was William Ellsworth Robinson and was an American born in New York.

"I believe I have discovered some unique information about him which has not been published for many years," he adds.

Magic fans will have to wait for the book to appear to discover the answer to that mystery, but, meantime, Trevor confirms the slender connection that his hapless hero does have with hereabouts - that of the Lorne Street, Darwen, sheet metal works of old-established Ritherdon and Company.

It was the firm that made apparatus for Chung's act when he was appearing in northern theatres - though then, before the firm's move to Darwen more than 50 years ago, it was based off Deansgate in town-centre Bolton.

Today, the company's boss Howard Ritherdon still has old documents - billheads and so forth - that tell of the tie-up.

But it is evident that Chung chose the company with care, so that the secrets of his tricks were in safe hands. For the company's founder, Howard's grandfather, Percy Ritherdon, who worked with Chung for 15 years until his death, was not only an engineer but, Trevor tells me, also an amateur magician who was vice-president of the Manchester-based Magi, the fourth-oldest magic society in the country.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.