Collector’s Corner – Nick Dunn

If you have a story to tell, send it to my personal messenger, and a photo or two would be nice.

This chapter is written by a former Derann staff member Nick Dunn, who worked along side Adrian Simmonds in the TV and Hi-Fi Department for more than thirty years.

Nick Dunn

Hi Ged. I started at Derann August 1983 and seem to remember It was the week Derek had decided to have a Xmas sale in the summer so all the decorations were put up and remember putting artificial snow in the windows. Amazing to think it’s 12 years now since it all came to a end and Derann closed. I should have written things down at the time. I used to like lunch times in the kitchen on the top floor when you, Derek and John would be talking about films and freemasons, funny stories, always found that interesting. Gary was always funny very quick with a joke and his impression of Mike Allen was very funny. I never went to Film Lab North but in later years I used to collect film collections from customers all over the country. I used to like doing that . I seem to remember you came with me on one trip I might be wrong but I think it was Bob Monkhouse’s film archive we pick up. I remember one in Wales I did and Gary came with me and the customer showed us his pet iguana he kept in a glass fronted wardrobe. He said he got funny looks when he took it for a walk down the High Street. Another customer I remember was so excited the Derann van was on his drive he took photos of it. One thing I remember is as we were all about to leave one night, Steve Wellings had accused Gary of stealing his boiled ham out of the fridge, which Gary denied For the next few days it and weeks it would still come up from Steve and Gary would still deny it, but months later when Gary confessed to me that he had eaten it after all. Mike Dimmock if he made a mistake you would hear him shout “No!” and he’d go bright red. Good times. All the best.

[Let me add that I’m not entirely surprised by Gary’s confession. Nick was employed by Tesco to work in their Audio Visual dept, after we closed and got the job as soon as they found out he had worked at Derann for around 35 years, he’s now retired. GED]