village in the middle of the jungle to show
them that they could make money from
tourists. These people don’t care about
orangutans and sometimes they kill
them so we’re trying to show them that if
westerners come and stay overnight how
they can make money from that.
So back to now, how did you meet
your wife and how do you find living in
Hove?
I came down here with my first wife and
I came down here in 1976 with my then
one-year-old daughter Lucy who actually
has worked for the last 10 years on This
Morning - she looks after the costumes.
She went to Wimbledon School of Art
so she knows all about costumes so she
has been working in television and her
husband is a first assistant director on
big feature films and is doing Wonder
Woman as we speak. I’ve been down
here for 40 years nearly and it’s the best
decision I ever made.
I’ve always been in Hove I actually got
gazumped on two houses and ended
up in Hove and it ended up to be the
best place. I originally came down here
thinking it would be a good place to be
out of work and since I’ve been here I’ve
been pretty much in work. I think this the
best city in England and I’ve worked in
nearly every city. It takes quite a lot of
beating and it is the place to be as they
say. I absolutely love Brighton and I love
everything about it and it’s got better
and better since I’ve lived down here.
I’ve also been lucky because I’ve been
involved in quite a few things down here
and people ask me to be patron of this
and vice president of this that and the
other so it’s lovely - I have nice social life.
the songs were by Irving Berlin called The
Smallest Show on Earth and it is based
on an Ealing comedy that actually starred
Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Virginia
McKenna and Bill Travers and it was done
in 1957. The story of the piece is about a
little cinema that is run by these eccentric
people and a film script writer and his wife
inherit it. They go to see it and they think
they’ve inherited this big fabulous one
in the town and they haven’t, it’s a funny
little one. When I was there and I twisted
my knee early on in rehearsals so I had to
have it strapped up so it was pretty tough
going through that for about eight months
- the long and the short of it is that I’ve
had to turn down work at the moment
because of an operation on my knee and
that will take a little time to heal.
I’ve already got Aladdin next year but I’m
literally having time off to recover and I
have been offered some tours which I
might do in the autumn. We’ll just see, for
the first time in my life in a way because
of the operation, I’ve not committed
myself to anything. I’ve got a friend
who’s a producer in Brighton who always
asks me to do things and he has got a
production out called Dealers Choice
and he asked me to be in that but I had
to turn it down and then some one asked
me to do the Full Monty in the autumn
but I don’t want to do that either!
I’m lucky that I can pick and choose and
I’ve got panto at the end of the year so I
don’t really have to worry about the rest
of the year.
And finally?
Well, I am looking forward to the summer
in Hove and fully recovering from my
operation and then I will be touring with
a mystery thriller in the autumn called
‘Home At Seven’ by R C Sherriff who
wrote Journeys End.
Thanks so much for your time, Brian.
A pleasure!
By Liza Laws
It has got a good community feel here
hasn’t it?
Very much so, I mean it’s got a nice
village feel it really has. I know it’s
becoming quite expensive but I love
everything about Brighton and I love it’s
accessibility to London I love the sea I
love the Downs and I like the fact that
it’s a vibrant city and a fabulous place to
bring up children. The problem is they
don’t leave - or if they do mine have left
and come back!
It’s got such a European vibe, you can
watch the people go by, you’ve got the
open air cafés and you’ve just got to
embrace the culture and dare we say
intelligent . I love it, it’s lovely to live in a
place where you can’t imagine leaving.
What have you been up to lately and
what’s next?
Last year I had a fabulously exciting year
because someone asked me out of the
blue to star in a new musical in which all
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