Getting to grips with Saturday’s heroes

flicking the V sign during one competition – also turned to wrestling and was known to ride his opponents like a horse around the ring. Gimmicks were a staple of the scene. Colin Willis wore ermine robes, Geoff Condliffe was known as Count Bartelli, Doncaster-born Gary Cooper took on the name and look of TV wizard Catweazle and Welsh professional wrestler Adrian Street, the son of a coal miner, sported the glam look. Jack Ernest Gutteridge fought under the name of Jackie Pallo and had an 11-year grudge with fellow grappler Mick McManus. Pallo was responsible for developing moves such as the cross-shoulder backbreaker. He wrote his memoir, You Grunt, I’ll Groan, after retiring in 1983. He also fitted in some acting work including getting knocked out by Honor Blackman in a fight scene on The Avengers.

Actor Julian Sands, who plays Tony “Sweet Cheeks” Smith in new movie Walk Like A Panther, which is inspired by the old wrestling stars, remembers: “My earliest memory of wrestling was sitting with my great aunties, Ethel and Gladys, in the semi-detached they shared in Meanwood, Leeds, in the mid 1960s.

“A regular Saturday afternoon date; the slightly fuzzy black and white images of the grappling Haystacks, McManus and Nagasaki, always accompanied by Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie and Ambrosia rice pudding and the constant refrain from both ladies, ‘What a fine figure of a man’ followed by Yorkshire ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs.’ It was always cosy and fun.”

Actress Jill Halfpenny plays Laura “Liplock” Anderson in the movie, which sees a group of 1980s wrestlers persuaded to return to the ring one last time to save their local pub.

Jill says: “My memories of wrestling are the pure theatre of it all. The bits in between the moves where they were acting would crack me up. It seemed so over the top and Big Daddy reminded me of my grandad.”

Walk Like A Panther which is in cinemas on Friday, was written and directed by Dan Cadan.

He says: “My strongest memory of watching wrestling was not necessarily the wrestling itself – although I loved the characters, their ‘spectacular’ costumes and the mania – I was entranced by the strong familial bond that wrestling induced. My grandparents, biscuits and a brew. I needed nothing else. I was safe. I was entertained. I didn’t have a care in the world.

“That feeling resonates to this day. That was the reason I wanted to make Walk Like A Panther. To remind people of that time. Which, for most, was a glorious one.”