A pub landlord from west Dorset who drove two convoys of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and helped refugees flee the country will be speaking about his experiences.
Tom Littledyke will speak as part of Bridport's film festival, From Page To Screen, this week. A raffle is also being organised by the festival to raise funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee's Ukraine Humanitarian and Afghanistan Crisis Appeals.
Mr Littledyke, who runs the Shave Cross Inn, took a minibus packed full of donations to the Poland-Ukraine border shortly after the war started. He went on to drive to the city of Lviv to bring out refugees desperate to escape the conflict. This effort rapidly grew into a second convoy with more than 30 drivers delivering ambulances and 4X4s as well as more aid.
Film fan Mr Littledyke will be talking after the screening of the award-winning animation 'Flee', below, which tells the true story of an Afghan refugee confronting their traumatic childhood experience of human trafficking.
It will be screened at 5pm on Friday, April 29 at Bridport Arts Centre. Tickets can be purchased at www.bridport-arts.com or from Bridport's TIC.
Former Royal Marines Reservist Mr Littledyke, 31, who attended The Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, took acting classes in Hollywood and briefly landed a role in the TV series The Punisher.
Missing 'country pubs and proper beer', he returned to Dorset where he was compelled to bring his love of cinema to the Shave Cross Inn and arranged drive-in screenings.
Meanwhile, for the charity raffle there are prizes donated by local businesses and festival supporters including a star prize of two places at Mark Hix's special Kitchen Table Event on May 23, a Merino lambswool and silk scarf from Wallace & Sewell worth £120, a selection of vintage soundtrack albums from Clocktower Music and a Super 8 Camera and rolls of film from the festival committee's Nick Goldsmith, who produced 'The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy'.
Film memorabilia has also been provided by Claire Nuttall, pictured above, from Bridport's Ukraine Volunteer Group, including a sought after 'No Time To Die' Bond 2019 stunt crew t-shirt.
Mr Littledyke is providing a raffle prize of a gift box of beer from Gyle 59 brewery plus a bottle of the '9.2 Anti Imperial Beetroot Stout' the pub specially created for President Zelensky. He hopes to give the president a case of it one day, or even vodka from the distillery he is planning to set up at Korcszowa on the Polish border to generate jobs for Ukrainian refugees.
These and other prizes are on display in the Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery alongside the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum exhibition which runs until Saturday April 30.
The £1 raffle tickets can be bought for a single entry or in £10/£20 multiples by texting PAGE2SCREEN to 70215 and they will be drawn at Bridport Arts Centre at 10pm on Sunday, May 1.
*Bridport's Ukraine Volunteer Group, whose members have been sorting the mass of donations of humanitarian aid at a warehouse on St Michael's Trading Estate over the past few weeks is holding a celebratory sale there on the Bank Holiday weekend 10am-4pm April 30-May 2 with music, art, food and drinks alongside a clothes sale featuring everything from jumble bargains to designer and vintage treasures.
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