Les Mis classic becomes lockdown anthem

Actor and film-maker Freddie Hill has combined with retired GP Charlie Wood to turn a classic Les Mis song into a message for our times.
Freddie HillFreddie Hill
Freddie Hill

Charlie, who lives in West Chiltington, rewrote the lyrics for Bring Him Home to become Stay At Home.

He then sang them and Freddie, who lives in Coldwaltham, added appropriate footage to create a moving and powerful video, now viewable on YouTube.

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Freddie, who played a male Tinkerbell in last year’s panto at Horsham’s Capitol and also enjoyed four years with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, is delighted with the result – and with the response it has been getting.

“Charlie is a retired GP who is on call for the current situation. We go back a long time as family friends. My mum and him used to put on old-time music-hall revues, and knowing that I did bits of video production, he asked if I would be interested in doing some visuals for the song.

“Bring Him Home is a really popular song and the revision of the words suited it really well. Charlie adapted the words as a different way to get the Stay At Home message across. It is a very emotive song. People are always very moved by it, and Charlie has got a lovely voice.

“There is a videographers’ community that shares footage that they have shot, and it is just free to use. I was able to find what I wanted. I was able to get a good range of varied footage. I was looking for footage of families and people enjoying themselves. I was also looking for footage of empty places – empty roads and empty stadiums – to show that that is the right scenario. And I was looking for footage of families having fun at home.

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“Charlie is really pleased. We went backwards and forwards and did a few little revisions, and I think it works really well. It has had a very good response so far, and potentially we could do other things.”

In the meantime, Freddie and his mum have been busy creating old-time music-hall revisions for fun under the title For Mild Entertainment. These can be viewed at http://www.gradedfilms.co.uk/formildentertainmentFor Freddie it all keeps his hand in at a difficult time for actors and film-makers – time he is determined to use constructively. He has been contacting local firms to offer free video

production for when things re-open; he has also been using the time to hone his skills without the immediate pressure of having to find a job.

Freddie spent four years with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre during which playing Peter Pan on the main-house stage was one of the highlights. Over Christmas, he returned to the Peter Pan story in the panto at the Capitol at Horsham, but this time playing Tinkerbell in an unusual take on the role. It could yet prove to be an award-winning performance. Freddie has been nominated in the Best Mythical Creature or Fairy category in the Great British Pantomime Awards.

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The awards ceremony was supposed to be in April. Freddie is waiting to hear what will happen.

Whether he wins or not, it was certainly a great experience: “It went fantastically. It was really well received. It was a bit of a step into the unknown and that is always difficult, but it worked really well.”

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