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Bogarde's Beginnings


Village halls played a part in the early careers of many actors – some of them becoming world renowned. Who knows just how many household names first got a taste for the luvvie life at the local amateur dramatic society. Dirk Bogarde was certainly one of them, because he wrote about his experiences at Newick Village Hall, near Lewes.

Dirk’s mother made the acquaintance of a Mrs Cox, whose husband was said to own the village hall. Dirk became good friends with the Coxs’ daughter and the family took to him, allowing him to indulge his teenage ambition of becoming a playwright. He wrote, and starred in “The Man on the Bench”, supported by Nerine Cox.  It was performed around the time that Nazi Germany had marched into Austria – but a sparse audience with a lot on their minds nevertheless received it well.

Mr Cox offered Dirk his first leading role shortly afterwards with the Newick Amateur Drama Society – Raleigh in R.C. Sherriff’s “Journey’s End”.

“It was a tremendous success. The hall was packed for three nights solid and people came from as far afield as Lewes and Hayward’s Heath.”

The multi-ambitioned Dirk also designed the set.

War was soon to interrupt his journey to becoming an international film star – but you probably know the rest of the story. And it all began here:



Extract and information from “A Postillion Struck by Lightning” by Dirk Bogarde (1977).

Do have a look at my 20th Century cinema themed books, all available for a very small price from Amazon.co.uk


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sarah-Miller-Walters/e/B00DZPX09U/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

This story also appears in my book


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