IT wasn't that the mannequins clad in the latest fashions appeared to be coming to life that caught the eyes of passers-by.

It was more that at least one of them had a beard. And wasn't that other one serving pints down the pub last night?

Shoppers passing The Verge shop, on Durham City's Elvet Bridge, stopped to stare at the three game-for-a-laugh men in drag posing as live mannequins on Saturday.

And many threw in a pound or two to staff at the shop collecting money on behalf of the University of North Durham Hospital's Treetops children's ward.

Miss Shakespeare, alias Mark Charlton, landlord at the city's Shakespeare pub, was joined by Mark Wilkinson, of Prontaprint, and Miss Tara, a professional drag queen at the Bank Bar in Newcastle.

Shop owner Lisa Liddle hoped to raise hundreds of pounds for charity.

"Don't ask me how I came up with this," she said. "I was in The Shakespeare and I think I must have had a couple."