SHOPS were closed, streets quiet and amusements silent on what should have been one of the busiest Saturdays of the year in the most popular resort in the country.

The Fylde Coast came almost to a standstill as all thoughts focused on the London funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

BBC TV repeatedly featured scenes from Blackpool as an example of the extraordinary effect of this day, even on the brashest and brightest holiday town.

Blackpool's mayor Councillor Fred Jackson was among those interviewed.

"I was asked if it was difficult to get Blackpool to close down for the funeral," he said.

"It wasn't difficult at all - the people of Blackpool wanted to show their respect and warmth for Princess Diana."

He and mayoress Councillor Pam Jackson had met Diana on her first visit to the resort in 1991.

The mayor and mayoress watched the funeral on TV before going back to work, behind their sweet-stall in Abingdon Street market, when the town came back to life at 2pm.

Joan Humble, Blackpool North and Fleetwood's MP, had been in Israel all week, narrowly missing tragedy when a suicide bomber struck at a shopping mall, killing seven, near the hotel where her British Government delegation was staying.

She returned home late on the night before the funeral.

"Like most people, I watched it at home on TV until the middle of the afternoon," she said.

"I was surprised how very deeply moving it all was."

On her last day in Israel she had planted a tree in Princess Diana's memory, one of 36 donated by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, at the British Park in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. "All week everyone was offering us condolences, everybody was very, very sad," she said.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden also saw the funeral on TV - in breaks between teaching on his last day as a history tutor for the Open University at Croydon.

"It couldn't be cancelled because it was the students' last chance to have a day school before their exams," he said.

"We held a two-minutes silence at 11am and we managed to follow what was going on in the breaks.

"The mood was very subdued. I intend to pay my respects at the memorial service in Blackpool on Sunday."

Fylde MP Michael Jack, who as a former Home Office minister met the princess four times, was at home with his family to watch the funeral.

"When it came to the minute's silence," he said, "I went onto our balcony and stood looking out over the River Ribble; it was very quiet.

"I turned south toward London and thought of the millions of people there and reflected quietly on the remarkable funeral service."

On the Sunday he attended a crammed St Annes Parish Church for a united memorial service, giving a reminiscence which included telling a joke in front of an appreciative princess and of showing her around the Home Office.

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