Released 30 years ago, Mrs Doubtfire, which starred the late great Robin Williams as a prim and proper cross-dressing nanny with a refined Scots accent, was a box office smash around the world.
But while William's legendary character was certainly made up, it wasn't a complete work of fiction - Mrs Doubtfire, it turns out, was actually based on an eccentric, and, reportedly foul-mouthed, Edinburgh shopkeeper.
The story of the real 'Mrs Doubtfire', which was recalled on the BBC's The One Show this week to promote the West End musical adaptation of Mrs Doubtfire on the 30th anniversary of the movie, is about as far from Hollywood as it's possible to get.
READ MORE: The cunning inmates who escaped Edinburgh's Saughton during jail football match
Madame Doubtfire was a moniker familiar to many Stockbridge locals in the 1970s, as it was the name above the door to the premises of Annabella Coutts, whose second hand goods emporium was the stuff of legend.
Selling assorted furniture, ladies and gents clothing and assorted bric-a-brac, Madame Doubtfire's basement store, which was situated on the corner of Howe Street and South East Circus Place in the New Town, was an absolute riot. Dimly-lit and haphazardly crammed with all manner of items, the second hand shop smelled to high heavens of pipe smoke and cat pee.
Feline lover Mrs Coutts kept numerous cats on the premises and was said to have been a real character - and one who shared little in common with the Robin Williams creation. Far from being gentle and well-spoken with a Morningside-like brogue as portrayed in the movie, Coutts was a fiery character with a piercing wit who was no stranger to the F word.
Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox
The shop owner, who was born in Aberdeen in 1886 as Annabella Cruickshank Adams, named the emporium after her first husband, Arthur Cyril Doubtfire, who was sadly killed in action during the First World War. She moved to Edinburgh and opened her shop following the death of her second husband, car mechanic James Davie Coutts.
But while she was certainly well-known in the Stockbridge vicinity, it was only after her death, in 1979, at the age of 92, that Mrs Coutts AKA 'Madame Doubtfire', would become a household name far and wide.
In the 1980s, novelist Anne Fine was in the process of writing a children's fiction book about a family with a divorced parents that would earn her fame and fortune.
Fine, who had lived in Edinburgh for a spell, used to pass the late Annabella Coutt's emporium daily while taking her children to school. The Madame Doubtfire name would stick with her and become the basis for her book's lead character and title.
The celebrated author, 75, told the BBC's The One Show: "I used to have to walk my children to school, and I passed Madame Doubtfire's shop and I must say it just seemed the perfect name.
"Inside, it was extremely cramped, you could barely move for stuff. I did buy a sort of furry old cloak thing. It stank of cat pee - I probably washed it about 20 or 30 times."
Well-received upon its publication, Anne Fine's book provided the inspiration for Robin Williams' 1993 Blockbuster, which would go on to gross more than $440 million (£340m) worldwide.
Fine added: "It does seem very strange that a 30-year-old person strolling around with their child to primary school can set off a chain of events that mean that everybody in the entire world knows the name Madame Doubtfire."
The Mrs Doubtfire Musical, which stars Gabriel Vick as Daniel Hillard/Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire, is currently running at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End.
You can watch the BBC's The One Show episode featuring the origins of Mrs Doubtfire here.
READ NEXT:
34 Edinburgh photographs that perfectly capture life in the city in the 1970s
Retro cookbook that was a must-have for every Edinburgh kitchen back in the day
The Edinburgh internet cafes we all used in the pre-smartphone era
Eerie Edinburgh wreck of yacht once owned by famous author left to rot in harbour
18 Edinburgh places that have changed beyond recognition in the last 30 years
