A Seaside Affair by Fern Britton

Author:Fern Britton [Britton, Fern]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780007468560
Google: f6xvAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0007468563
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-04-23T23:00:00+00:00

Part Two

21

The Easter production of Tales of Downton was a sellout, with tickets changing hands on eBay for many times their face value. The great and the good of Trevay were all out in force, and the Islington Chatterati, many of whom had Cornish second homes, made it their business to secure tickets. Rumours were rife that David and Samantha Cameron would be coming to watch too. They often stayed in neighbouring Rock on their holidays. It all generated a buzz of excitement that equalled anything to be found on a West End opening night.

Brooke was nervously putting the final touches to her make-up. They’d had precious little time to rehearse and she could only hope that her training at the Bristol Old Vic and the Actors Studio had stood her in good stead.

As it was a fairly informal set, with just Brooke and the other two actors on a simply lit stage, she’d opted for an understated but elegant black calf-length dress that wouldn’t ride up over her knees when she sat on her stool. Tonight was all about changing the way people thought of her. This wasn’t about looking good on the pages of a tacky tabloid; this was about Brooke Lynne – the actress.

Jonathan popped his head around the door.

‘Ready? Curtain call in about five mins.’ He gave her a calm and encouraging smile. ‘Feeling OK?’

‘You betcha.’ Brooke gave him a wink with more confidence than she felt and put the final touches to her hair.

*

Julian Fellowes did not disappoint his fans. His script for the evening was brilliantly written and perfectly performed by Hugh and Dame Maggie. The anecdotes were hilarious and they held the audience in the palms of their hands. Brooke was a natural. Playing the parts of the other Downton Abbey cast members was a perfect showcase for her talents. Naturally funny, she imbued the (liberally exaggerated) stories of behind-the-scenes high jinks and mayhem with humour and intelligence. Her talent as an impressionist was a revelation and the audience were doubled up with laughter at her rendering of the much-loved characters, in particular, her performance as Carson, the butler.

When the three actors took their bows, they received a standing ovation. As they left the stage, the ongoing cheers and cries of bravo brought them back for an encore. Brooke caught the Colonel’s eye in the front row and he gave her an approving smile as the audience cheered and clapped their approval.

The night continued in the same enjoyable vein. Sir Julian’s ‘Any Questions’ section was a hoot, and both Lord Fellowes and the audience enjoyed Queenie’s good-humoured heckling from the front row, proffering an invitation for Thomas Barrow to drop in and share one her famous pasties out the back of the shop anytime he was passing …

The evening ended with an auction. The sale of Dr Who memorabilia and a jacket from Quentin Tarantino, who had worn it while directing Django, made almost £50,000. An awful lot of the money raised would

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.