THE inspiration behind one of Laurel and Hardy's most famous routines has been revealed for the first time.
In the Oscar-winning 1932 movie The Music Box, Stan and Ollie play delivery men trying in vain to deliver a piano to a house at the top of a long flight of steps, in a film which is now hailed as a slapstick classic.
Now a forthcoming documentary says it was a steep flight of steps in a part of North Shields, North Tyneside, that inspired the celebrated scenes.
Former comedian and Laurel and Hardy expert AJ Marriot has revealed the link in a film on Stan Laurel's roots in the north of England.
Laurel was born Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Cumbria, but his family moved to North Shields when he was young.
His father, Arthur Jefferson, had been a performer, but built theatres throughout the North-East.
He lived near Nater's Bank steps, leading up from North Shields Fish Quay.
Mr Marriot believes the young Stan used the steps regularly and was tickled by the idea of a delivery man struggling to the top, only to discover that a road would have taken him there at a fraction of the effort.
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