AS a nine-year-old boy, Anthony Brown had something that would make him the envy of children around the world – a part in Star Wars.

Now is involved in bringing the music of the film’s Oscar-winning composer John Williams to an audience as part of the Investec Proms in the Park season.

Anthony, head of marketing at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, appeared as a Jawa in George Lucas’s seminal 1977 space fantasy.

He owed the opportunity to his Buckinghamshire school friend Fraser, whose dad Peter Diamond was a stuntman working on the film at Elstree Studios in 1976.

“My friend said his dad was working on this film, did I want to come along and have a look?” he said.

“I remember Dad saying this was a space cowboy film.”

The crew were shooting the inside of the Sandcrawler, the vehicle into which the tiny scavengers the Jawas abduct robotic heroes C-3PO and R2-D2.

Fraser and Anthony were decked out in hoods and cloaks, with bright lights for eyes.

“I’m not totally sure which one is me,” Anthony admitted.

He met stars Mark Hamill and Alec Guinness, both of whom he remembers as being very pleasant.

“It was my first time on a big film set, it was a fun day out and I wasn’t ever thinking this was going to be a historic moment,” he said.

“I personally think Star Wars saved cinema. All the cinemas were shutting down, cinema was a bit in the doldrums and Star Wars really saved Hollywood and now it’s this massive franchise.”

After the film’s American release in May 1977, Britain waited months to see the movie that had broken box office records.

“I remember going to my little cinema in Chesham and seeing the film. I didn’t really know what it was all about when we did the film," he said.

"I was as blown away as anyone else when the titles rolled up and the big spaceship loomed above you. It was just amazing."

On Friday, August 11, the BSO will celebrate the composer at Meyrick Park at the start of a weekend of concerts.

“We’ve played a number of film concerts and thought we would programme this special John Williams night because he was 85 earlier this year," said Anthony.

"It’s a really nice moment to celebrate his music, not just from great big science fiction films but some of his more quiet music as well."

The programme will include a 20-minute suite combining pieces from E.T., Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and Star Wars.

Putting together the programme even involved a phone call to the maestro himself.

Anthony wanted to use an arrangement of the theme from Gone With the Wind that John Williams had created for a CD with the violinist Itzhak Perlman. To get the score, he had to be put through to the maestro himself.

“I explained we’ve been doing a lot of his music and had official scores but this was a piece I had listened to and wondered if we could use it, and he said yes. I had managed to get a direct contact with the great man," he said.

Details of the BSO's Investec Proms in the Park concerts are at bsolive.com