Nigel Ridley was the smarmy chief executive of Newton & Ridley in 1990 who spearheaded the brewery's theme pub scheme. In 1989, when Nigel was the brewery's marketing manager, Rovers cellarman Jack Duckworth had a meeting with him to rat on Bet and Alec Gilroy, who were going through a messy breakup. Hoping that the brewery would oust the Gilroys and offer him and Vera the tenancy, Jack fed Nigel a cock-and-bull story about him keeping the pub going with Alec a shadow of his former self. Nigel learned that this was true - minus Jack's embellishments - when he paid a surprise visit to the Rovers and Alec tried to cover for Bet's absence by saying that she had gone away for a while. The Gilroys reconciled a few days later, before the brewery could act on their separation.