ONE of the UK's leading film makers says he was inspired to support a play because it carries "the authentic voice of Teesside".

Franc Roddam, who created hit TV programme Auf Wiedersehen Pet, was back in his home town of Stockton last week to promote the play.

The 54-year-old was at Stockton's Arc theatre in his capacity as executive producer for Graham Farrow's Talk About The Passion.

The play, set on Teesside, has never been shown before in Stockton, even though it was written by Yarm man Graham Farrow, who has seen it performed in New York, Australia and Canada.

It was Franc Roddam, originally from Norton, who first backed the play in the late 1990s.

He says: "When I first read the play it was as if I was back in the pubs of Stockton. I had never known anything to catch the voice of Teesside like this. And it wasn't just the way the characters spoke, it was the whole emotional tone. It was the feel of Teesside."

Roddam, who has promoted the play around the world, says he hopes the Arc production will help boost venue itself. The £9.5m Lottery-funded theatre re-opened almost exactly one year ago after closing due to mounting debts. He says: "This is a fantastic resource for this town and the whole region. I gave a talk this morning here at The Arc to these fantastically talented young people who included a 15-year-old boy who had written a 40-minute play. With talent like that on your doorstep it would be a crime not to have something as fantastic as the Arc."

The film producer, who was the man behind the 1970s cult movie Quadrophenia, says controversial comments he made two years ago that Teesside was 'ugly' had been taken out of context. He says: "It is unfortunate that when a businessman comes to, say, The Swallow Hotel in Stockton, the first thing he sees when he leaves the door is an 'everything for a pound' shop. It just takes a bit of thought to improve our image. I just want what Ray Mallon and everyone else on Teesside wants, for all these big ideas to redevelop the place to actually happen."

Chris Webber

Published: 23/09/2004