VIDEO: Edward Fox drops in to Wareham cinema to support Purbeck Film Festival

Edward Fox OBE joined film fans at the Rex Cinema, on West Street, to take part in a talk and question and answer session, along with his friends, John Julius Miles and director, producer and screenwriter, Christopher Miles.

The star of The Day of the Jackal and A Bridge Too Far said: “I’m the president of the Rex Cinema and have known it for many years.

“For the Purbeck Film Festival, a very wide-ranging audience will have – in places including Hamworthy and Swanage, not just in cinemas, but all over the area – these wonderful films which people might never have otherwise had the chance to see. They may not even know of their existence, but they are practices of art, which is what it should be.

“The reason for all this is because so many people have worked to make the Purbeck Film Festival and it is all on a voluntary basis, out of the good of their own hearts.

“It is so worthwhile. You never know with people’s lives what is going on with them, so to be able to go and watch a film and to think that it was so worthwhile to see is so important. It gives people pleasure.”

The three gentlemen, along with the audience, also watched a screening of the Oscar-nominated short film Six Sided Triangle on 35mm film, which was just one of many events planned for the film festival, now in its 18th year.

Andrea Etherington, chair of the Purbeck Film Festival, said: “Edward Fox is a wonderful asset to the Purbeck Film Festival and for the Rex Cinema. He has lived in this area for 40 years and is a huge supporter of community arts events, community life and so on. He opened the private gala, the public gala and the talk and screening today, with the two speakers, John Julius Norwich and Christopher Miles, being great friends of his.

“We do have a number of producers, directors and screenwriters who live in this area and they come to our events when they can, which we appreciate.”

For more information, go to Purbeckfilm.com