So, R.I.P. Robert Mark, former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, doyen of TV road safety adverts and 1940s Manchester copper. Mark features on our “Gangland Manchester” walk (next outing Thu 14 Oct) when we stop outside Bootle Street nick and hear how as a simple PC the man who later became Britain’s most powerful cop had to tackle members of the notorious political gang Manchester has ever seen – the Italian Fascist Party – when the mother country joined the Second World War in 1940.

Robert Mark had to go round the city rounding up Italian fascists, but it wasn’t as simple as it appears, and the outcome was unexpected and tragic. Mark also presided over the Met’s great anti-corruption clean-up operation in the 1970s. What a shame he wasn’t at hand to rid Greater Manchester police of the same a decade later, but then we wouldn’t have as good a stock of stories to tell you. See you for an hour or two of stories about bad cops and tasty gangs on the streets of Manchester on Thu 14 Oct, leaving the Manchester Visitor Centre at 2.30pm. Bring your own handcuffs.