Stars back literature project

ACTORS including East Enders soap star Charlie Brooks have been rallying behind plans for a children’s literature centre in Dumfries.

A special performance of JM Barrie’s play Peter Pan was staged by members of the amateur Teddington Theatre Group in London, raising £1500 for the project which will be created at Moat Brae where the playwright dreamt up his characters as a child.

Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust vice chairman Roger Windsor attended the production and said: “The group wrote to Joanna Lumley, who they knew had a connection with our trust, and asked her to attend the gala performance.

“She was unable, as she was appearing on stage that night in The Lion in Winter, but I think she suggested that they hold the gala performance in honour of us.”

Thrilled by the support, Roger said: “It was a wonderful show -- a musical production, and the singing and the dancing was fabulous, and we were all given magic dust to throw at the appropriate times.

“The whole thing was super. It was a magical evening.”

And at the end of the show, audience member Charlie Brooks, alias Janine Butcher from EastEnders, joined a grateful Roger on stage at the Hampton Hill Playhouse to announce the financial contribution to the project.

Roger says that about £500,000 has now been raised towards the first £750,000 phase, which will see the B-listed house restored to its original state. A further £4 million is required for the centre promoting reading.

Roger said: “It’s meant to be fun, and to be after school -- it’s not supposed to be an extension of school. The title is what destroys it at the moment. My suggestion is we call it The Fwendy Centre.”

Concerned that Disney will prevent the use of The Peter Pan Centre, Roger notes that Fwendy was the name a child who couldn’t pronounce her Rs gave Barrie and which led to his creation of the name Wendy for the play.



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