'New Tricks' Trivia

Culled from the sports section of yesterday's Metro 'newspaper':

The mystery behind BBC detective series New Tricks has been solved - all the main characters were named after writer Roy Mitchell's beloved West Bromich Albion (football/soccer team). Jack Halford, played by James Bolam, Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong) and Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman), spell out the Halfords Lane Stand at the Hawthorns. "I didn't use to sit in the Halfords Lane End as a child but it's the best of the stands for the main characters," said Mitchell. "After all, one end was called the Rainbow End, so that was out."