LET’S face it.

Most of us put Warrington down from time to time but when it comes down to it we are still generally proud of our home.

Now former Hollyoaks actor Darren Jeffries, who attended Padgate High, is leading a production to reflect on Warrington’s past, present and future and to ‘reignite passion for the town’. Stockton Heath resident Darren runs an acting course called Ludovico Studio at the Pyramid centre and the spoken word piece and video is intended as an end of course project.

But ‘This Warrington’ has been given the full professional treatment with Andy Whitby, director of photography on Hollyoaks and Holby City, providing the main camera work.

He worked in collaboration with 11 Ludovico students with the production, videography and performance side all done by Warrington creatives.

The video revolves around a poem by Andy Green, chairman of Warrington History Society and Radio Warrington presenter.

Andy, who signed up to Ludovico acting classes after interviewing Darren for Radio Warrington, said: “It was quite by chance really. Darren wanted to do a collaborative piece at the end for the whole class. He was thinking of a poetry piece and when he did a search on the internet some stuff that I’d written years ago came up.

“So he asked me at the end of one of the sessions if I fancied writing something that summed up my thoughts on the town in this moment in time. It came to me really quickly – literally overnight – the next morning I gave Darren a draft of it. It was like a flow of consciousness and he thought it was brilliant. Then to actually go into the class and hear them performing the work was overwhelming in some ways and quite touching.

“It was a bit like serendipity because I was on the course already and his view of Warrington seemed to fit with mine.”

Andy, who grew up in Burtonwood and attended Great Sankey High, has been writing poetry since he was a teenager and found inspiration for the piece from passionate people he has met through radio and his knowledge of Warrington’s history. The video touches upon the industries of the past and the new town emerging through redevelopment.

 

Andy Green

The 51-year-old added: “Warrington is by no means perfect but it seems like we’re being listened to. Like when LiveWire were looking at changing how the libraries worked. People complained, people weren’t happy about it, they listened and the libraries are still here. You can speak out and you can be heard so I’m trying to get that across. There are opportunities to shape where we’re going.

“We had Alison from Warrington Voluntary Action on the radio show and she was saying there are 1,400 voluntary organisations in the town and in 2018 more than 44,000 volunteered in Warrington in some shape or form.

“That’s things like church groups and football coaching and it shows Warrington people are good people. I think we’ve got a cracking town.

“There are some things that I get frustrated about. I like local history and when I see some of the buildings going that’s saddening.

“But there is a chance we’re going to get a theatre, there’s a cinema being built – there is a lot of good stuff going on. People in the class performing it, of various different age groups, said it resonated with them.”

The film was shot over the course of one day at the Pyramid with help from the Culture Warrington team and a special screening is being arranged to celebrate before the video is released online.

Andy said: “It was interesting as for some people it was the first time they’d been on camera. I hope it makes people feel good about the town.”

Ludovico’s next course begins in late January. Visit helloludovico.co.uk