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Hello and. 
Welcome to the Brentwood Buzz, a

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podcast celebrating all that's 
good about the people and places

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of Brentwood, Essex. 
I'm Kay Bellwood. 

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A couple of weeks ago we heard 
from the local community actor 

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Bill Wells, about a Brentwood 
Theatre fundraiser with 

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international actor and director
Stephen Moyer, who grew up in 

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Brentwood, and we talked to 
Stephen's mum Jean as well. 

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Last night was the night and 
Stephen kept her packed theatre 

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enthralled for two hours and 
then even had enough voice left 

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to talk to the Brentwood buzz. 
We're in Brentwood Theatre and 

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the star of the night is Stephen
Moyer, who is a Brentwood boy. 

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And you're back for the for the 
evening, or for good. 

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Back for the evening, don't live
in Brentwood. 

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We've moved in, we've moved back
to Suffolk. 

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I've been in America for 20 
years and I'm the patron of this

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theatre and I have been for 
nearly 20 years. 

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And so it was really lovely to 
be asked to come back and I had 

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a window in my, in my schedule. 
So I was able to sort of give 

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Bill the heads up about a couple
of months ago and just say this 

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is the day I can do. 
And so we, we managed to make it

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work. 
And it's interesting because 

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there's so many faces in the 
crowd that I, that I know so 

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many, but also like that lovely 
gentleman who'd flown over from 

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Korea, I mean, extraordinary. 
And and a couple of other people

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who have come quite a long way 
just to see me, which is very 

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nice and always unexpected. 
And it's nice that you learnt 

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your craft here. 
I'm going to say from being a a 

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boy starting at Saint Martin's 
actually, and and in a church 

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choir. 
There must be so many people 

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here that you just get that 
remember you and are so fond of 

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you. 
That's what came across from the

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audience. 
Yeah, it's always amazing that 

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and and I was not sure who was 
going to be here. 

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It's, it's interesting because a
lot of those people are quite 

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influential. 
There was, there's a gentleman 

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here who I saw play Billy 
Bigelow when I was like 12 or 13

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who was a massive influence. 
We did pantomimes together. 

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His name's Patrick Tucker. 
We did pantomimes together and, 

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and it's really incredible. 
I looked up a couple of times 

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and I saw some faces. 
That was that I recognized and 

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that I couldn't put names to 
necessarily, but I knew who they

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were. 
I was saying to Anna, Anna's my 

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wife and I was saying to Anna, 
just I went to see Chelmsford 

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young generation do West Side 
Story at the weekend and there 

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were all these old faces and, 
and, and I don't mean old in a 

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pejorative way, but but old 
faces. 

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I'm not saying that I'm a spring
chicken, but it reminded me of 

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that scene in Cinema Paradiso 
where the director goes back to 

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the town that he's from and he 
sees the people who are the, all

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of the, the, you know, that were
the characters of his childhood.

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And they're now white haired 
and, you know, maybe have a 

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walking stick and, and stuff. 
And it was a bit like that on 

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Saturday. 
It was so lovely to see all of 

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those people still volunteering,
still going out there for the 

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young Gen. just as people do for
the Brentwood Operatic Society, 

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for the Brentwood Theatre. 
You know lots of people doing 

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this because it's their love and
it's great to see. 

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You've done films, you've done 
television, you've done theatre.

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Would you come back and do 
anything? 

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Very, very small. 
At Brentwood at all at any 

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point? 
Never say never. 

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I, I, I, I honestly, you know, 
I've been waiting for the right 

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thing to come along. 
I do get off of the odd play 

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here and there and, and it's 
really about fitting it in. 

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And I've got young kids as well.
So, you know, sometimes it's, 

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it's quite difficult to, to be 
away for a long time. 

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So who knows? 
Like once they get to the point 

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where they're self-sufficient 
and they don't want me around 

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anymore, which may be coming up 
sooner than I thought, then 

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yeah, who knows? 
And I suppose you could be the 

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old white haired person with a 
stick who people go, oh, do you 

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know when I saw him play Billy 
Bigelow or when I did something 

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that was the thing that made me 
want to be in the theatre. 

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And, and you could inspire 
people here now, but. 

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That's interesting, you know, 
because somebody came up to me 

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who was a first year or second 
year, who had remembered me 

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playing Lysander in Midsummer 
Night's Dream at school. 

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And it had been a very important
part of his sort of childhood 

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and, and which was extraordinary
to me that, that, that, that 

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would make a difference. 
But it does. 

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And, and, and I've got people 
like that. 

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And so it's not a, a weight that
I carry lightly. 

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I, I, I, it's a responsibility 
and it, and it can be a lovely 

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one too. 
And. 

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I think a lot of people here 
today have said isn't he normal?

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Isn't it lovely? 
You know and and you are. 

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I, I, I really, again, I'll, you
know, I, I said this this 

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evening, but I, I, I'm so lucky 
to do what I get to do and I'm 

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so happy to be able to do it and
to get paid for what I love 

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doing. 
And why would that make me any 

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different? 
I I'm so grateful, you know, and

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so there are, I've worked with 
people who don't wear it like 

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that. 
A lot of people do. 

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And I wanna be one of those. 
I wanna be one of the doers. 

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Bill, you've interviewed Steven 
tonight. 

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You both went to the same 
school, perhaps slightly 

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different times, but you were at
the same school. 

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St. 
Martin's obviously turns out 

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good actors 'cause you're not 
bad yourself. 

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Well, yeah, obviously it was a 
great school and we had a superb

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drama teacher. 
Stuart Rose, who was a 

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professional, couldn't get work,
came to Saint Martin's as our 

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drama teacher and he pushed us, 
pushed us, pushed us, pushed 

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into very look back in anger, 
arms on the man points, being 

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earnest. 
We did tough plays and we were 

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15 to 17 or whatever we were so 
and that was a good grounding 

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but unfortunately I didn't go 
any further. 

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I just went into local theatre. 
You're in everything locally. 

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Yeah, basically I shouldn't 
really. 

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Whenever, whenever anybody asks 
me about whether their kids 

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should become an actor or not, I
always say, are they good at 

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anything else? 
And I don't mean that because I 

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don't believe that they can't do
it. 

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But people like Bill, my friend 
Kevin who was here tonight, 

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Patrick who I was talking about 
earlier, have had very 

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successful working, business 
careers, life outside this. 

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And they do this as a community 
thing and they do it because 

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they love it. 
Not many actors get to go skiing

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at in in you know in the winter 
or then also have a summer 

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holiday, also get to see their 
grandchildren or also play 3 

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different leads in a musical or 
in a play every single year. 

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Actors would bite your arm off 
for that if. 

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The thing I was going to say was
somebody said to me about no, I 

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said what if I joined a queue of
50 actors for a Butler part and 

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I didn't get it, income, money 
to live on. 

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So I went into the bank, I got a
regular income and now a good 

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pension and I still did acting 
in my own time. 

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So I got and got lead parts 
which I would never have got if 

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I if I'd gone. 
So I got the best of worlds in a

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way and. 
And that is a bloody good life. 

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I could admire people like 
Steven. 

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I I sometimes see my mates who 
do it and I and I think, oh, 

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they're, they're just home. 
Haven't, you know, seeing, 

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seeing all the, there's a bunch 
of them here tonight. 

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It's, it's, it's lovely that 
they get to all have, they're 

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all friends with the people that
I was friends with when I was 

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12, you know, still and it's 
lovely. 

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I think it's fantastic. 
And I just chose to do this, and

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I've been lucky enough to be 
able to continue doing it. 

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What a fabulous evening at 
Brentwood Theatre last night 

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with Stephen Moyer. 
Huge congratulations to Bill 

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Wells and the Theatre Trustees 
for giving so many of Stephen's 

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fans, friends and family the 
chance to hear him tell some of 

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his hilarious and scandalous 
tales of being an actor. 

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Keep supporting Brentwood 
Theatre, it's a friendly place 

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and it's one of the town's gems.
Oh, and do like and share the 

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Brentwood buzz.