Having played DCI Burnside in The Bill for five years, actor Christopher Ellison is used to catching crooks, but he’ll be on the other side of the goodie/baddie divide when he plays Captain Hook in Peter Pan at Lighthouse, Poole’s centre for the arts.
On a lightning visit to Poole to get a handle on Hook, Chris can’t wait to play one of theatre’s classic bad guys.
“Hook is a great part to play, a really good baddie,” he says. “People always say it because it’s true, but baddies really are the best roles. I’ve always played villains ever since I began in The Sweeney in the 1970s – even Burnside, he was a bad cop really; he just made people feel safer because he could make everything better. He’s about as far from me as it’s possible to be!”
Chris, who will be up against Bluestone 42 actor Jamie Quinn in the title role, has a passion for Peter Pan and is particularly excited by this original yet faithful take on JM Barrie’s much-loved story about the boy who wouldn’t grow up.
With two performances already sold out, Peter Pan opens at Lighthouse on Friday 4 December and runs till Sunday 3 January. Alongside Christopher Ellison and Jamie Quinn will be Lighthouse favourite Neil Smye as Smee. Ally Cox, artistic director of Stagewise School for the Performing Arts, which is based at Lighthouse, will play Mrs Darling. Tiger-Lily will be played by Poole actress – and Lighthouse stage door supervisor – Lora Townsend who played one of Anne Boleyn’s ladies in waiting in the recent BBC drama Wolf Hall.
