Miss Midweek to a lady mayoress

4:04pm Monday 24th February 2003

MISS Midweek Deirdre Alden is still turning heads more than 30 years after her coronation at the Wycombe Show.

Glamorous Deirdre Alden, 50, beauty queen turned politician, is set to be inaugurated as Lady Mayoress of Birmingham with her husband, Lord Mayor John Alden, in May.

Deirdre, a picture strip sketch writer and former drama student, formerly of Flackwell Heath, described 1971, her year as a local celebrity in High Wycombe, as "one of the best years in my life."

She said: "It was exciting at the time. We had to send in our photos to judges who picked six finalists and then we all went to the Wycombe Show."

Surprisingly, 19-year-old Deirdre's glamorous job did not seem to prove a hit with the boys. She said: "They used to laugh. Boys used to think it was quite amusing."

Deirdre was in her first year studying drama at the Birmingham College of Speech and Drama when she was crowned Miss Midweek.

She said: "I didn't think too much of coming home on weekends. That's when we did most of the functions."

Proud mum Hilda, of Links Approach, Flackwell Heath, was delighted as her daughter's Miss Midweek obligations meant she saw her most weeks.

Hilda, a former story writer, said: "It was really a wonderful year for her. She went to quite a few functions where she would sit with the then MP Sir John Hall. It was all very exciting."

She laughed: "I suppose she was always one for the limelight to a certain extent."

Lucky finalists spent the morning in September 1971 being pampered at Midweek's office, Free Press House, in Castle Street, High Wycombe, before setting off to The Rye.

A stunned Deirdre told reporters after being crowned: "It's marvellous I feel like crying."

Deirdre's prize was the Miss Midweek sash and £25 a large amount in the days when Midweek cost a mere two-and-a-half pence.

The mum-of-two will be the first councillor in Birmingham to sit as a Lady Mayoress if she wins her seat again in the May local elections.

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