Heartbeat star looks forward to a Passion 08 homecoming

Feb 26 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Actors David Lonsdale,Ed Bixter and Trevor Fleming who play Pontius Pilot, Jesus and Judas in the Passion 08 Production being Staged in Hesketh Park, Southport _320

HEARTBEAT actor David Lonsdale does not get a lot of time off, and when he needs a day for something special, he has to get special permission.

It seems he is doing something special in his hometown of Southport, but for once he does not need to arrange a special day.

“It’s on Good Friday and that is one day when they are not filming,” he explains. “So this was something I could do.”

What he is doing is joining the community cast of an outdoor version of Passion 08 in the resort’s Hesketh Park.

“I am playing Pontius Pilate which is a real difference from David Stockwell, the character I play in Heartbeat.”

In Lonsdale’s own words, Stockwell is “the village idiot” in the television series set in the 1960s in the fictional Yorkshire village of Aidensfield.

“When I first got the part I was told he was a naive man who loved the countryside. But when I met the actor Bill Maynard, he said I was the idiot.”

He played opposite Greengrass, the loveable rogue character creat- ed by Maynard, for some years un- til illness forced Maynard to leave the series. But Lonsdale remains.

“I think I got the part because I was the only person who could work with Bill,” he laughs. “I saw him recently and I can report he is just as bright as he ever was.”

Lonsdale was born in London but at the age of one moved with his family to Southport. Later he went to college in London and for many years lived in the city there, work- ing as an actor. He later relocated to Southport with his wife and children and has never regretted it. “It’s a great place to live. The children have good schools and we all enjoy the town.”

It was his being based in Southport that he suggests landed him the role of Pontius Pilate in Passion 08, an open air production based on the Bible story of the crucifixion and written by Suzy Walker, Sefton’s Performing and Community Arts Officer and Steve Hopwood, head of drama at Crosby’s Chesterfield High School.

“They are using a lot of community people so it was a natural progression to ask me,” says Lonsdale. He was surprised to learn that his daughter Annie, 13, a pupil at the Chris Wright School of Dance, was also in the show as a dancer. “Neither of us knew the other one was in it. I think Annie was a little embarrassed.”

He says Pilate is not a total villain in the piece - “at least he tries to get Jesus released” - and even gets to sing a song.

And for Lonsdale, it is a perfect gig. “Hesketh Park is my local Park so it’s the only job I have had where I have been able to walk from my home to the performance.”

* THE Passion is on Good Friday, March 21, at 5.30pm, in Hesketh Park. Admission is free.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk