BACK in 1987 Hollywood actor Anthony Hopkins, who is now a Sir, took on another starring role when he opened a new £320,000 clinic at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital.

Here's how we reported the visit at the time:

Not only did Mr Hopkins have to share the limelight with the fracture clinic staff, his mother also stepped into the centre stage.

For widow Mrs Muriel Hopkins, a former patient at the old clinic, the opening ceremony was a double celebration - because it fell on her birthday.

Mrs Hopkins, of Hove Avenue, Newport, watched her famous son unveil a commemorative plaque before paying a surprise visit to the children's ward and intensive care unit.

And she praised the new clinic which she said was in "complete contrast"to the depressing barn-like proportions of the old unit.

Hospital administrator Mr Antony Sumara said the refurbished clinic and the newly-built physiotherapy department was a much-needed development for patients, who by the nature of their complaints, often had to wait for long periods in the clinic.

"About 25,000 patients a year visit the department and it is important that they are treated within a well-equipped and pleasant environment."

Mr Sumara added he wanted to stress that the £320,000 cost of the upgrading was not money that could have used to ease the present cash crisis in Gwent's health service.