ONCE upon a time, teenage girls lived in a world without mobile phones, laptops or iPads.
There was no Facebook or Snapchat, no YouTube vloggers or anything resembling an online dating app.
But none of that mattered. Because for a generation of adolescent girls, the highlight of their week was the latest issue of Jackie magazine landing on the doormat.
Love, life and everything in between was all there. For girls growing up in the 1970s or 80s, Jackie was a loyal companion, with her must-read photo-stories, fashion tips, fun quizzes and the Cathy and Claire problem page.
Now those rather innocent days are re-visited in Jackie the Musical, a new show celebrating the magazine and its impact.
Choreographed by Arlene Phillips, it stars Janet Dibley as a recent divorcee facing the middle-aged dating scene. When she comes across her old stash of Jackie magazines she realises she needs them now for the same reason she first read them 40 years ago - for advice on the do's and don'ts of dating. As she re-enters single life, accompanied by her trusty teen bible, she meets her former self and re-discovers the lessons she learned as a girl - which come in handy when both her ex and a dishy new guy turn up.
"It's extraordinary how many women say they devoured Jackie as a girl," says Janet, 57. "I guess it was all quite innocent, but at the time it felt like you were learning about life. I loved it. It meant a lot to women of my age.
"You'd fancy a boy for weeks, often from afar, and that was enough. And along came Jackie with advice on how to talk to boys; advice you didn't get anywhere else in those days. Mothers didn't talk to their daughters about things like kissing boys, and there was no social media.
"Jackie was our 'Facebook'; it felt like being part of a community. It spoke to me.
"I think it's a shame those magazines don't exist anymore, there isn't that voice for girls now."
With its pop star pin-ups, photo stories and angst-ridden "reader's true experience" tales, you'd expect Jackie to have been founded by a Carnaby Street fashionista or music business afficionado, but it was Gordon Small, a former RAF aero engine fitter, who was its first editor. Launched as an exciting new magazine for "go-ahead teens”, Jackie became the best-selling teenage title for 10 years.
It hit the newsagents on January 11, 1965; a time when the family telly was likely to be rented, and the choice of three channels was a world away from multi-channel, 24-hour TV. Until the arrival of Top of the Pops, just before Jackie on January 1, 1964, pop music came largely via Radio Luxembourg, listened to on a crackling radio under woollen bed covers
When Jackie finally arrived, at 6d a copy, it was the must-have mag for girls keen to be in-the-loop when it came to the hip and happening.
Although the magazine's home was printed as 185 Fleet Street, it was actually produced in Dundee, a city famous for its jute and jam. But the London address gave Jackie kudos; something produced at the heart of the cool capital.
Jackie was an instant hit, with its lively mix of fashion and beauty, pop gossip, horoscopes, love stories and life advice, not least vital tips on how to get a boy - and keep him!
It peaked in the early 1970s, with over a million copies. Readers drooled over posters of the likes of David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and David Essex and papered their bedroom walls with them.
Fashion was a major part of the magazine, with the flares, floaty Biba dresses and platforms of the Seventies giving way to ra-ra skirts, pedal-pushers and pixie boots in the Eighties. The drawn artwork of early fashion pages was later replaced by photographs of models on location.
The top-selling teen title continually evolved to stay on trend. But eventually, with sales declining to 50,000, the magazine was closed and the presses rolled for the last time, with the last issue dated July 3, 1993.
In the words of Jackie pin-ups Bay City Rollers, it was “Bye Bye Baby”, but the magazine that played such a huge part of teenage girls' formative lives on in the hearts of the women they became.
Jackie the Musical, which also stars former EastEnders actor Nicholas Bailey and musical theatre star Graham Bickley, features hits from the likes of Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and Marc Bolan. "There's a bit of Motown, and the Three Degrees, Arlene has created fabulous 70s dance routines and those great Northern Soul-style moves people recall from youth clubs," says Janet. "It's a show with heart, there's a lot more to it than just a jukebox show stringing a load of hits together. It's great to be involved with a brand new musical - that doesn't happen very often.
"At its heart is a woman who's packing up her house to sell, she has a son, has been through a divorce and wonders what the hell happened to her life. When she meets her younger self she's ashamed of what she's become, and they go on this great journey together."
Doncaster-born Janet shot to fame in the 1980s, co-starring with Nicholas Lyndhurst in ITV comedy The Two of Us. "It seems quaint now, the idea of a young couple living together being the premise for a sitcom, but it was all quite modern at the time. People still have a lot of affection for it," she smiles.
Other TV credits include EastEnders, Kay Mellor dramas Fat Friends, The Chase and Band of Gold. More recently she has been in Broadchurch and Doctors, playing Dr Elaine Cassidy and writing occasional episodes.
"I write continuously; being on tour allows me the time," she says. "I started out in musicals then my career went off into TV drama, comedy and soap. I really wanted to get back into singing so this show was the perfect opportunity.
"I'm looking forward to coming to Bradford. I filmed Band of Gold there and have good memories of the city."
* Jackie the Musical runs at the Alhambra from March 29 to April 2. For tickets call (01274) 432000.