The year 1984 was a bad year for the world of British entertainment. Within a period of about one month Tommy Cooper, Diana Dors and Eric Morecambe each passed away.

Born Diana Mary Fluck (this caused Diana to say later: "They asked me to change my name. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name, Diana Fluck, was in lights, and one of the lights blew...") on 23rd October 1931, England's answer to Marilyn Monroe was to work in Borehamwood on productions including the 1956 film, Yield to the Night.

Yield to the Night, which was very much an anti-capital punishment drama, was made at Elstree Studios when they were under the ownership of ABPC.

The 99 minute black & white film (directed by J. Lee Thompson) saw Dors playing Mary Hilton; a woman awaiting execution after murdering her partners' lover, Lucy Carpenter, in cold blood.

Diana's co-stars in the film included (in alphabetical order): Michael Craig, Geoffrey Keen, Yvonne Mitchell and Marie Ney.

The screenplay for Yield was by John Cresswell and Joan Henry; and was based on Henry's book. Music for the film was provided by the Associated British Studio Orchestra.

There is no-doubt that the film was a real departure for Dors who proved that she could more than handle dramatic roles as well as light comedy roles.

Diana achieved a prolific number of theatre, radio, film & TV credits to her name during her life. A life which itself became an ITV television film in 1999 entitled The Blonde Bombshell. The drama starred the then future New Tricks' actress, Amanda Redman.

My earliest memories of Diana Dors included watching her on the Saturday morning children's show, Swap Shop. Dors had popped in to promote her appearance in the Adam Ant pop video for Prince Charming, in which she played a fairy godmother.

I also recall Dors appearing in the first-run of the famous Worm That Turned series of sketches on that Saturday night TV favourite, The Two Ronnies.

School holidays in early '84 saw me witnessing Diana co-presenting a diet feature on the breakfast programme Good Morning Britain, on TV-am.

TV executive Greg Dyke, who worked at TV-am at the time, later recalled that her appearances helped to boost their ratings during the early days.

Diana revealed to TV viewers that her Cancer had returned on an edition of a chat show hosted by Des O'Connor. During the interview, Dors told the studio audience that having already previously beaten the Cancer twice she planned to beat it again.

Sadly, this was not to be and Diana died on the 4th May 1984.

Diana Dors was married three times. Her husbands were: Dennis Hamilton, Richard Dawson (the couple had two sons: Mark Dawson and Gary Dawson) and Alan Lake (the couple had one son, Jason Lake).

Following Dors' untimely death from Cancer her third husband, the actor Alan Lake, sadly committed suicide during the same year.

Just after Diana's death, Lake said: "I have lost my wife and soul mate. The world has lost a legend."