ONE of Bolton playwright Bill Naughton's most famous works gets the 2004 treatment when a costly new film of "Alfie" is released next month.

Hearthrob actor Jude Law takes the lead role which made Michael Caine famous, as the Cockney romeo cutting a swathe through 60s womanhood in Swinging London.

Naughton was born in Ireland but brought up in Daubhill. He moved to London from Lancashire during the war and, because he was a conscientious objector, got a job delivering school meals.

He based the character of Alfie on the wised-up Cockneys he met during his rounds. But he actually wrote "Alfie" as a play for Radio 3, which Bernard Miles offered to put on at London's Mermaid Theatre, where it became a surprise hit.

Naughton then wrote the screenplay, and was asked to write the book to coincide with the release of the film. By then, as his wife Erna Naughton recalls: "Bill was getting a bit bored with it! But he wrote it anyway, in just six weeks."

Erna now lives quietly with her two cats in the Isle of Man, where she and Bill made their home before Bill's death in 1992 following a stroke.

She does, however, still keep in touch with friends and acquaintances of the couple's, and occasionally comes back to Bolton.

She was last here three years ago for the opening in Bolton Library of the vast archive of her husband's work - including the original play and film notes for "Alfie".

Erna still keeps track of events in the town, and is particularly pleased that Bolton Institute - which conferred an honorary fellowship on her husband - is to become a university. "Bill would have been very pleased about that," she insists.

Erna well remembers seeing Michael Caine filming in London more than 40 years ago. "He was very good in the role," she said. "But Jude Law will probably be successful in the same way - he is very good-looking."

The new film is set in present-day New York, but Erna believes this will not make a difference to its effectiveness. "It was always a good story," she says.