Mel Ryan was a brash businessman from Birmingham who offered Ray Langton a slice of a deal worth £1m in sauna baths. He had an exclusive concession from the manufacturers for the north of England at £50 a time. The baths came from Newcastle in kit form and Ray was offered the job for Fairclough and Langton to assemble them. Ray's eyes saw pound signs and he noticed when meeting Mel at the Carousel Club that he had an eye for the ladies. Ray heard about Irma Barlow kidding some lads from the Mark Brittain Warehouse that she was French and offered her a night out with him and Mel if she could convince his erstwhile business partner that she was one of his Gallic cousins.