Breakfast at Adolf's?

Last Friday, I had breakfast as usual at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. This is truly a magnificent building, Manchester's finest. The accommodation is fit for a King or even a Chancellor, even if he was German.

I looked up from my Financial Times newspaper to see a film crew all around me, a celebrity at last... No.

I started to talk to the film producer Dan Clapton of Goodboy Joey Films Ltd. It turned out that he was more interested in Adolf Hitler than me.

Adolf, he told me, had a relative in Livepool whom he visited. On Adolf's travel to England before the Second World War he visited Manchester and was very impressed with the Midland Hotel. This would make a fine home for me after my successful conquest of Britain, he thought. He gave instructions to the luftwaffe not to bomb the beautiful hotel or the area immediately around it. Manchester was blitzed but the building was not damaged. Unfortunately for him he lost the war and committed suicide. The Midland continued to be a grand hotel.

Dan's film is all about the above story and will be shown on television in September (ITV).

It is suprising how many people are still interested in Hitler. Every Saturday the Daily Express carries a two page spread devoted to him and the people around him.

Manchester the first industrial city in the world and home of Manchester United Football Club (now owned by the American Glazer Family) could have been the home town of "Herr Hitler". Now there is a thought. Not quite breakfast at Tiffany's.

The Midland is perhaps most famous for being the meeting place of Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce leading to the formation of Rolls-Royce Limited in 1906. More recent celebrity stays include Paul McCartney, The Spice Girls, David and Victoria Beckham, George Best, Tom Jones, Pavarotti, Jennifer Lopez, Prince Edward, Manchester United footballer Fabien Barthez, and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Dr Alan Mitton