Another native of Blackwell was Percy Toplis – The Monocled Mutineer – who went on to become a mutineer and conman during and after World War I.
The BBC had originally approached Bleasdale in 1981 to adapt William Allison and John Fairley's 1978 book The Monocled Mutineer, which had at the time of its publication prompted questions in Parliament about the events of the Étaples Mutiny, which led to the discovery that all records of the Étaples Board of Enquiry had been destroyed long since.
McGough was cast as secret service detective Edwin Woodhall in the Alan Bleasdale-written drama The Monocled Mutineer and appeared in Brookside as Charlie Dawson who at first appeared to be a friend of Heather Haversham's then husband but turned out to be a drug dealer.