WHEN Highcliffe Charity Players take to the stage for their production of Snow White, starting tomorrow, they can hope for a visit from a star of Star Wars.

It’s probably no longer a spoiler to reveal the unique role that locally-raised actor Guy Henry plays in the blockbuster Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Most fans will now know that Guy – best known until now as surgeon Henrik Hanssen in Holby City – was involved in an audacious effort to bring the late Peter Cushing back to the screen. The effort to recreate Cushing’s performance as Grand Moff Tarkin from the original 1977 film involved combining Guy’s performance with pioneering visual effects.

But he admits he was insecure about the prospect – and even told the film-makers they should feel free to bring in impressionist Rory Bremner.

When Guy agreed to become president of Highcliffe Charity Players – the company his parents helped found – he already had already appeared in two Harry Potter films, as Pius Thicknesse. But Rogue One has boosted his credibility with young people even further.

Yet he is open about his initial doubts over the project.

He was an admirer of Peter Cushing and recalls he has probably even introduced some of the star’s films. In the 1990s, Guy appeared under a ghoulish mask as Dr Terror, who presented horror double bills on the BBC.

“That was my big worry, that not only would I look like an idiot and let down one of the biggest films around, but I would also let down Peter Cushing if it didn’t come off – and he was an actor that I did admire so it was a very nerve-racking and strange thing to do,” he says.

The Rogue One experience started on May 5, 2015, when his agent received an invitation for him to meet the director Gareth Edwards.

“It’s slightly silly really because it’s a showbiz secret, a huge secret, and we met in one of the most media-orientated bars in London, which is called Dean Street Townhouse.”

He adds: “He was delightful and he explained very clearly what they wanted to do while swearing me to absolute secrecy. Even after several glasses of Pinot Grigio, I managed to keep it a secret.

“As it happens, Peter Cushing is a favourite actor of mine. I’ve always liked his work, thought he was lovely and had a lovely voice so I said that’s a big ask – particularly because he said ‘Right up until the film goes out, you won’t be credited until the end credits of the movie’.”

Guy suggested they should do a screen test, which took place at Pinewood Studios.

The filming itself involved Guy wearing a special camera rig on his head, while his face was covered with hundreds of dots to record “every single twitch and nuance” of his performance. The team at Lucasfilm’s visual effects house Industrial Light and Magic then worked “painstakingly for month after month” to map Peter Cushing’s features onto Guy’s.

“Motion capture is a well-established form of visual effects these days but never has it been used to recreate a dead person and bring them back to life, so it was very odd,” he says.

He was given DVDs of Cushing’s scenes from the original movie to study, including some of the outtakes from the filming.

“It isn’t an accurate impression. I don’t think they really wanted that and I don’t think I was actually capable of it,” he says.

“I did say to them, ‘If you’re not happy, get Rory Bremner. I won’t be offended, I’d rather it worked and you can just use the physical bits that I’ve done as a template' – but no, they’ve used absolutely everything I did.”

Guy grew up in Highcliffe and went to Homefield School and Brockenhurst College.

His father, Michael Henry, is a former actor who played straight man to Charlie Drake and Arthur Haynes. He met Guy’s mother, Diz, when they were both in summer season in Great Yarmouth. He was performing with Drake, she was a dancer with Benny Hill.

In the early 1970s, the pair helped set up Highcliffe Charity Players, where Guy made his debut aged 11, in a non-speaking role as a footman. He can’t remember whether the production was Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella.

His parents, who now live in Witchampton, knew he was in Rogue One, but even they did not know the nature of his involvement. And although he saw a “few tiny snippets” of the effects work, it was not until the London premiere that he knew how it had come out.

He was “incredibly nervous” but decided it worked to a “large extent”.

The role has made film history and raised a debate about the ethics of recreating dead actors on screen. Commentators have speculated about whether we could now see James Dean or Marilyn Monroe back on the screen.

Guy says of his role: “They certainly did it with the approval of his family. I gather his old secretary, who knew him very well for many years, was pleased with it, which makes me happy and I hope that’s true.

“If it’s done with great love and great admiration, I think I’s a tribute to Cushing and his work rather than anything else so I don’t have any problem with it whatsoever.”

* Highcliffe Charity Players’ panto Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is at the Regent Centre from tomorrow until January 28. Tickets at regentcentre.co.uk, 01202 499199.