Our happy family photograph was captured 30 years ago.
It was early March 1993 and showbiz couple Tim Healy and Denise Welch were posing at home with their young son Matthew. The husband and wife, of course, were famous Tyneside-born stage and TV actors.
Tim, 41, had shot to fame with his brilliant portrayal of Dennis Patterson, the worldly-wise unofficial gaffer in the smash-hit television comedy drama, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Thirty-four-year-old Denise at the time was appearing as the estranged wife of Detective Sgt Freddie Spender in the BBC series of the same name, written by and starring another Pet favourite, Jimmy Nail.
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During the years that followed, the pair - who split amicably in 2012 - would become two of the best-known faces on UK television. Healy would appear in the likes of Benidorm and Still Open All Hours, while Welch would enjoy prominent roles in Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, and Hollyoaks, as well as being a regular guest on the ITV chat show, Loose Women.
Back in 1993, they were telling the Chronicle how they were rounding up some of their celebrity mates - including Robson Green and Newcastle United striker Mick Quinn - for an upcoming dinner in Newcastle in support of the young people's charity Weston Spirit. Earlier in the year, meanwhile, Denise had talked to our sister title the Sunday Sun about being a well-known face on TV and its impact on the couple's young son.
"He is only four, but still finds it strange when people thrust autograph books under our noses," she said. "A lot of friends appear on TV and Matthew thinks that is normal. There is nothing you can do about the fame aspect. We're just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping it doesn't affect Matthew."
Little did anyone know at the time, but Matthew would go on to enjoy a successful career in showbusiness himself, becoming a chart-topping rock star in one of the country's biggest bands. Thirty years on, Matty is lead singer and rhythm guitarist with Manchester-based pop rockers The 1975. (The couple also have a younger son, Louis, who is an actor).
First getting together at school, the four-piece band has released five albums since 2013, each one rocketing to number one in the UK charts, with the last one Being Funny In A Foreign Language hitting the top spot in October year. Last month it was announced The 1975 will perform at London's Finsbury Park in July, playing to more than 40,000 fans at the Festival Republic event in what will be the groups biggest ever UK headline show.
Matty, who has 1.7 million followers on Instagram, has frequently found himself in the showbiz headlines, only last month calling on Oasis to reform and for the estranged Gallagher brothers to "stop messing around".
The 1975 are preparing for a sprawling world tour which will take in South America and move on to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe, before hitting the UK in the summer.
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