AT 14 Diana Fluck was accepted to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

At 15 she appeared in her first film, The Shop At Sly Corner, a typical late 1940s Britsh thriller about blackmail and murder.

She’d long since changed her name to the more glamorous Dors – the maiden name of her maternal grandmother.

By 20 Diana was the youngest registered keeper of a Rolls Royce, and three years later she was reputedly the nation’s second highest-paid film star after Vivien Leigh, who’d starred in Gone With The Wind.

Her hometown newspaper faithfully reported every step of the way, and the often turbulent transition to respected character actress and chatshow favourite which followed.

Diana was born on Friday, October 23, 1931, and her first appearance in the Adver was an announcement a week later: “Fluck - 23 October at ‘The Haven,’ Kent Road, to Mary, wife of AES Fluck, 210 Marlborough Road, a daughter (Diana Mary).”

Immediately above was an advert for a film at the old Empire Theatre, where the newborn would later perform.

The film was called Kismet, which is a Turkish word sometimes translated as ‘Destiny.’ Shortly after her sixth birthday in 1937, Diana’s name popped up again when she was listed as member number 4513 of an Adver junior readers’ club.

Over the next few years further snippets charted her successes in music and drama exams and festivals, but the big headlines began to appear in 1947 when her debut film was released.

In May of that year we ran a story beneath a photo of Diana, aged 15 and still a brunette, alongside the mayor and mayoress, her father and other guests at a reception thrown in her honour by a cinema firm at the Goddard Arms in Old Town.

Three days earlier we’d reported: “Making her screen debut in ‘The Shop at Sly Corner’ at the Savoy this week, 17-year-old Diana Dors, daughter of Mr and Mrs AES Fluck, of 210 Marlborough Road, Swindon, will appear personally at the cinema tonight, Thursday and Friday.”

Although she gave her age as 17, she was still several months away from turning 16, having lied about her age to get into drama school.

We added: “Tonight will be a particularly big occasion for Diana since, in addition to it being her first film to be shown in her home town, news has just been received that on Friday she won the Gold Medal at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.”

By the end of the 1940s she was a household name, and the following decade saw her try to crack Hollywood while being marketed as the British Marilyn Monroe. She was unsuccessful, not least because of the erratic behaviour of first husband Dennis Hamilton Gittins, who died in 1959.

Back home, Diana’s partying saw her criticised by the Establishment, and a perceived slight on Swindon – a hockey team removed her from an honorary role – soured her relationship with the town.

In 1958 she gave an interview to the Sunday Express, and said: “I’ve had Swindon. What has Swindon ever done for me?

“Most towns are proud of local persons who achieve success. But in Swindon I only get criticised.”

Nevertheless, Diana continued to see family and friends in the town as her glamorous early career gave way to character parts in films such as Steptoe and Son Ride Again and on TV.

The most fondly remembered of her TV parts includes playing Mrs Bott in Just William and a memorable showing as foster mother to a family of werewolves in Hammer House of Horror.

Throughout her later life, Diana visited Swindon, attending events ranging from fetes to product launches.

Two decades after her angry outburst about the town, she cleared the air over her comments in an interview with the Adver’s Shirley Mathias.

“I feel very nostalgic towards it now,” she said. ”As far as I was concerned they were just showbusiness stunts, and showbusiness people understand that. But people in this town – my parents included – took them for real.”

The star was in town to promote her new book, a collection of celebrity anecdotes called For Adults Only. The signing at the Brunel Centre was captured by a TV crew, possibly from Swindon’s cable network, and included a poignant interview.

Asked about her early fame, the genuinely talented actress said: “In those years people weren’t interested in whether you could act or not. They were just interested in the pin-up pictures and the publicity and all the flamboyant lifestyle.”

She also spoke of Swindon: “It brings back happy memories and it also brings back many sad memories. To come back and... to come back and to just sort of stare at the house you lived in – it makes me think of my parents and that makes me sad, and so I don’t... I don’t very often come here.”

IN OTHER NEWS...

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1984: “ADVENTURER David Hempleman-Adams has survived an attack from a ferocious polar bear in his bid to conquer the North Pole. He was forced to shoot the beast dead after he woke to find it scrambling around his tent in the Arctic wastes. David, 27, scared off the animal but it turned back to attack him. He fired three shots over its head but was then forced to kill it when the beast was just yards away.”
TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1984: “A STINGING attack on vandals came from Thamesdown Council today after yobs went wild on the buses. Condemning a‘stupid and wanton waste’ of cash, a spokesman called for a crackdown on senseless hooligans. The bitter attack followed a wrecking spree by vandals who got into the council bus depot near Swindon’s town centre. Climbing aboard six double deckers, they slashed and ruined a number of seats and splashed beer over seats and floors.”
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 1984: “SWINDON rail works looks doomed – and the factory’s union men say they’ve been betrayed. Rail chiefs admitted last night that the works is almost certain to shut within three years. As revealed exclusively by the Adver, the plan is to slash the workforce to around 700 initially. That would mean the works would not be economic, and bosses say unless there’s a massive – and unexpected – upturn, the works is in jeopardy.”
THURDSDAY, MAY 3, 1984: “WILDLIFE is being callously slaughtered at a Swindon beauty spot. Gunmen with air rifles shoot at ‘anything that moves,’ it is said. Now it is feared that youngsters playing in the area could be in danger from stray pellets. ‘It’s disgraceful. A stroll in the country is like being at the wrong end of a firing range,” said one woman who lives near The Croft Copse in Old Town. Men and boys have been taking potshots at wildlife – mostly birds – since the beginning of spring, say residents.”
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1984: “TWO mums picketed a Swindon school today in protest at teachers’ industrial action. They hoped to stop children being sent home for lunch from Moredon Junior School. Teachers at schools throughout Wiltshire are refusing to supervise lunch break in a ‘withdrawal of good will’ in support of their pay claim. But parents in Moredon claim the teachers’ action denies some of their children the right to free meals.”
SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1984: “WESTLEA residents want to take over a ‘flea-infested’ shrubbery and turn it into a play area for children. They claim a planted area of land in Birdcombe Road is a health hazard because it attracts ‘undesirable’ insects. Resident Caroline Bird said: ‘I’ve got three cats, and every time they come back from that flea-pit they itch and scratch themselves silly.’ Now residents are urging Thamesdown Council to hand over the communal garden to them.”