Didn't they do well! The South Tyneside mother and son who starred on The Generation Game

But they didn’t win a cuddly toy.

‘He was so much fun off stage’

Jean Gillies won a vanity case and a silver goblet, while her 18-year-old son Ashley, a pupil at Boldon Comprehensive, headed home with a silver tankard.

They appeared alongside TV legend Bruce Forsyth and Jean had nothing but praise for Brucie.

“Bruce was so much fun off stage. He is a great person, who made us feel completely at ease.”

Ooh Betty!

Jean was a headmistress of North Road Infants School in Boldon Colliery at the time when she had her moment in the TV spotlight in December 1976..

Here’s another reminder of TV links to South Tyneside that year.

Actress Michelle Dotrice is probably best known for her role as Betty in the ’70s sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em.

She played the wife of Frank, but more than 20 years earlier, Michelle spent some of her formative years in South Shields.

Starring at the Pier Pavilion

In the early 1950s her parents, actor Roy Dotrice and his actress wife Kay, were members of the town’s Denville Players.

They took part in several productions at the Pier Pavilion Theatre.

In 1976, Roy was back in the region to promote a recording of Watership Down, which he had narrated.

And, despite wide travels and countless roles during his career, his days in Shields held a special resonance.

Living in a caravan near the pier

He recalled a production of Ali Baba And The 40 Thieves at the Pier Pavilion.

At the time he and his family were living in a caravan by South Shields Pier.

The Dotrice family left South Shields in 1954, and Roy went on to become one of the most familiar faces on British TV.

Share your own memories of South Tyneside life in the 1970s by emailing [email protected]