The timeless charm of The Railway Children on the West Sussex stage

Martin Sworn steps into the Bernard Cribbins role of Perks as the Walberton Players bring to the stage the beloved story of The Railway Children.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspaper. It's lovely

00:06this morning to speak to Martin Swann, who is playing Perks, or a character to play,

00:11Perks in the Railway Children for the Warburton players. Mark, you're saying you grew up in

00:17that era, Bernard Cribbins, etc. What does it mean to you to play this role?

00:22It's a lovely role to play because as soon as you mention the Railway Children and Bernard

00:25Cribbins, everybody knows it. They don't go, what, who, never heard of that? I don't

00:31think there's many people of a certain generation who haven't seen that film and enjoyed it

00:36as an adult or enjoyed it as a child. It is a lovely film and it still stands up today,

00:39I think.

00:40Does that association, does that govern the way you play it, or is there only one way

00:44to play it, the Bernard Cribbins way?

00:47I just think you've got to get that, you've got to get that sort of, it's that dry Yorkshire-ness

00:53with still having that kindness there, you know, because he's not horrible to the children,

00:57he's not a grumpy man, he's just a proud Yorkshire man who gets involved with his three children

01:01from London and the sort of fun he's used from there. So you've got to, he loves them,

01:07he loves them in his own little way, along with his own children, and I think it's, there's

01:12many ways you could play it, but I think, you know, I thought it was good enough to

01:15be Bernard Cribbins, but I've watched it and I'm just, it's gentle humour with a little

01:21bit of, like I say, the dry Yorkshire humour in there, it's fantastic.

01:25And it's a film that's always been in our background, isn't it, it's part of our heritage,

01:29isn't it? And you're saying you've watched it again fairly recently.

01:32Yes.

01:33The fact is, it stands up, doesn't it? It really does stand out.

01:36It stands the test of time.

01:38But, it still works.

01:41The values, the values that were then, and even in the 70s when the film was made, and

01:47it's set in the early 1900s, the values, I still think, shine through today, which

01:51is family and community, and I think that's fantastic.

01:54Yeah, and you've been with Warburton Players for a little while, a couple of years?

01:58A couple of years now, done a few productions with them, really friendly bunch, good bunch

02:02as well. Come together as a team backstage, Freddie Lowe, we've got the house and the

02:07actors and actresses. We've got the youth theatre as well, so that's where we've got

02:09some of the children from to play some of their parts, which is great, so they can come

02:13through and be involved in an adult play, which is quite good, because doing kids'

02:17plays with kids, they learn some skills there, but working with adults as well gives them

02:23something they can look at and go, right, OK, this is how it works on an adult play.

02:29It really sounds a lovely prospect. Good luck.

02:32Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

02:34That's great. Thank you very much. Lovely to speak to you as well, Phil.