Star of Deadpool 2 and Entebbe at the Green Days fete

Eddie Marsan image by Tom Doran

The Bedford Park Festival was opened this Saturday (9 June) by the award-winning actor Eddie Marsan, home in Chiswick between numerous filming commitments in the United States. He’s currently to be seen in the US television series Ray Donovan, on Sky Atlantic, and the films Deadpool 2 and Entebbe, in which he plays the Israeli defence minister (and later PM and president) Shimon Peres.

Eddie told the crowd that although he worked away from the UK much of the time, he loved coming back to Chiswick which has been his home for twenty years.

Later this year he’ll be appearing in Mowgli, Andy Serkis' adaptation of The Jungle Book story, The Professor and The Madman with Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, Backseat, directed by Adam Mckay and Feedback, where he plays a radio presenter (based on Chiswick's very own James O'Brien) who has his studio hijacked by terrorists.

Eddie Marsan is also a familiar face from earlier appearances in the Mike Leigh films Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky; War Horse; and the BBC productions Little Dorrit and Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell.

In an interview last month with the Daily Telegraph, he said “I’m dying to work closer to home but that’s just not the way it’s going.” During his last six-month stint in Ray Donovan, he flew between LA and London 25 times: “I’m permanently jet lagged” he said, smiling through the pain. “'There are times when you go a bit crazy with it.'”

Eddie opened the 52nd Bedford Park Festival which was held in bright sunshine at the Green Days fete and craft fair, on Acton Green opposite Turnham Green tube station. The event began with the children’s fancy dress parade – on the theme Peter Rabbit & Friends – and the weekend continues with live music, children’s five-a-side football, funfair, food and drink, children’s corner and an array of stalls.

Profits go to St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the festival for the community, and its three 2018 charities: The Upper Room, helping the needy in Shepherd’s Bush; The Amber Trust, helping blind children to fulfil their musical potential; and Water Harvest, bring water to remote villages in India.

Green Days weekend is part of a fortnight-long Festival of arts and community events. On Monday 11 June, the chef and food writer Rowley Leigh will speak about his recipes and love of food, in conversation with broadcaster Susannah Simons. Leigh’s iconic restaurants Kensington Place and Le Cafe Anglais have served great food for 30 years, and his columns in the Financial Times have established him as one of our best food writers.

From the opening party to the Dvorak Festival Mass and Open Gardens on Sunday 24 June, there is a stimulating array of concerts, talks, walks and drama. Music includes jazz, opera, ballet, the golden age of the musical, and organ and piano recitals. There’s something for everyone, whatever their age or taste, in aid of charities and the church.

The multi-award-winning Cory Band from Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley will be performing in the church on Saturday 16 June. Founded as a colliery brass band in 1884, it now includes musicians of both sexes performing a widely varied repertoire of “blockbusting and beautiful” music.

Writer and commentator Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is the special guest in Poems & People on Wednesday 20 June - the annual poetry evening led by Chiswick poets Anne-Marie Fyfe and Cahal Dallat.

And the XV Theatre Company led by Christina Balmer returns to the Tabard Theatre, with more than a dozen performances of Perfect Pitch, John Godber’s hilarious comedy set on a caravan site.

Read the full Festival programme and book tickets.

June 9, 2018