The Gang of Three - Mary Laine, Michael Hall and Ian Cooper - were once the darlings of Derby Playhouse with a celebrity status few regional actors can claim today. Eventually the three moved to London and Derby more or less forgot them. But one lady never did.

Peggy Williamson struck up a friendship with the trio as a young woman which was to last a lifetime. Derbeian Peggy, now 86, talked to Sue Williams about the remarkable theatrical threesome and the happy times they spent together.

I got to know Mary Laine, Michael Hall and Ian Cooper through going to the theatre. That was when the Playhouse was in Sacheverel Street.

I did a bit of amateur acting myself with the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company.

After the shows, we used to go to a cafe in Green Lane for a coffee and a chat.

In those days, actors were seen much more around town, opening things and generally mixing with the community.

I was particularly friendly with Michael. He was a very talented actor, playing a variety of roles from the dame in panto to more serious parts.

During the season, he and other company members, like Ian and Mary, lived in flats on Burton Road.

I was a great walker and so were Ian and Mary. Every Sunday morning, we would gather and walk in the Derbyshire countryside. We always seemed to finish at the bottom of a big hill with the bus at the top.

Ian was very athletic and used to urge us on.

At the end of the day, we always had supper at someone's house, usually Michael's because he wouldn't walk.

I went on holiday with Mary once to Wales. We had a marvellous time. She had beautiful clothes. Most of them she made herself. But she also had a mink coat and a stole.

At the end of one season in Derby, she said to me: "I'm not taking these home. Will you keep them for me over the summer?"

I was terrified in case I was robbed but she just said: "Oh, just put them in the wardrobe and lock it up."

In 1967, Mary left and went down to London, buying a flat in St Margaret's, near Richmond. I don't know why she left. Some people later said it was to be near the man she eventually married, but I didn't even know she had a boyfriend at the time.

Eventually Michael also moved to London to play in The Mousetrap for a year. Then he went to the Orange Tree Theatre at Richmond. He used to come up to Derby at the weekends.

He was an actor all his life, apart from when he was in the RAF during the war. He played in rep for various companies all over the country.

Ian became director at the Playhouse for a while. Then his contract was not renewed.

I was secretary to Provost Beddoes at Derby Cathedral at the time. He asked me what was going to happen to Ian.

We were launching a big appeal to renovate the cathedral and he suggested that Ian should come and help.

He seized the offer. He used to go out in his rattly old car to raise funds. He was in his element. He did very well but his health was not good. He smoked too much.

After a while Ian also moved to London. He and Michael bought Mary's flat and she moved to a house near the river. In 1978 she got married but, sadly, her husband died 18 months later.

When they were all settled in London, I used to go down and stay quite often. They were happy times.

Michael continued to act here and there in the West End and Ian worked for a theatrical agency.

Ian had an aunt in Bexhill, in East Sussex. We would sometimes go there for holidays. Ian and I were the only ones who would go in the water. They were happy days.

Then Ian became very poorly and had to go into hospital. I went with Michael to visit him but he died from a chest complaint.

Michael kept the flat and worked a bit. He used to invite me down for parties, mostly so I could do the cooking.

He had a cat to whom he was devoted. If he had to buy a tin of cheap cat food, he would take the label off so the cat couldn't see it.

He said it didn't like the cheap variety.

He would introduce me to people as his "oldest friend".

Eventually he went into a home for retired theatrical people called Brindworth House, in Twickenham.

On one occasion, when I was visiting, I was standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for him, when Thora Hird came and stood by me and asked if I was waiting for someone.

When Michael appeared, she said: "Here he comes, looking like a discontented clergyman."

He died there, at the age of 94, in 2004.

About a year after her husband died, Mary landed the role of Mrs Boyle in The Mousetrap. She also played in an Oscar Wilde play and Shaw's Major Barbara. She died in 1983, three years after undergoing a serious operation.

I myself finished working for the Provost when I reached retirement age. I spread my wings and went to London to work as a young woman but came back to Derby to look after my mother in the 1950s. If I hadn't I would never have met the Gang of Three and been the poorer for it.

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