From Peckham to Pinter at Bridport Arts Centre (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

From Peckham to Pinter at Bridport Arts Centre

10:43am Thursday 4th February 2010

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A PACKED Bridport Arts Centre got to appreciate a very different Roger Lloyd Pack when he appeared on stage at the weekend.

Perhaps best known for playing comic roles, the versatile actor showed off a more serious side in Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter’s bleak play Ashes To Ashes.

The star, best known for playing road sweeper Trigger in Only Fools And Horses, came to the town to take part in Pinter: A Celebration.

Speaking after the enthusiastically-received performance, he said: “I absolutely loved this lovely little theatre; the acoustics were fantastic.”

However, he couldn’t resist a little Peckham humour after the Q&A session by encouraging the assembled audience to join him and the rest of the cast for a drink.

The day – organised as part of the Bridport Literary Festival – was a major coup for the South Street venue.

It was led by Lady Antonia Fraser, the playwright’s widow, whose autobiography, Must You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter, has already become the literary talking point of 2010.

Also attending was actress Harriet Walter and Pinter’s close friend Harry Burton.

Theatrical director Mr Burton, who interviewed Lady Antonia, said the day – which also included a screening of the film Working With Pinter – had been a fantastic success.

He said: “It has been such a success we should do a weekend celebrating another literary giant.”

Along with the rest of the day’s stars he agreed to put on a We¤BAC blue wristband to help promote the building’s renovation appeal.

The day itself raised a further £200 from donations by the audience.

The Arts Centre also saw itself being named as one of the must-do venues to attend in Bridport in The Times’s Great British Weekends feature, which named the town one of the best on the coast.

It is the second time in recent months that BAC has found itself unexpectedly being praised in the national press. In November, Mathew Parris writing in his Spectator column described his visit to see Margaret Drabble. He said: “The sweet little 18th century chapel, now a theatre, was packed for the talk.”

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