Barnard Castle’s Peter Cockerill was landlord of the Old Well Inn, on The Bank, for six years before he passed on the baton to Roy and Rima Chatterjee.
Two years on, the 52-year-old has hit the nation’s TV screens with cameos in ITV’s Vera and BBC drama Inspector Gently and has now lined up a new spot at Darlington’s Hippodrome Theatre.
Mr Cockerill will lead the way in 30 shows of “Anywhere” from Friday to Sunday (February 4) at the renovated venue, taking patrons on an immersive theatre tour of its nooks and crannies.
He said: “What is exciting about this is it shows where all the millions of pounds have been invested.
“We can take customers around and you get to see what’s involved in theatre making as well as telling the story of the history of the site – all linked in with classic theatre from Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll.”
The former publican has been an integral part of the Castle Players amateur dramatics group for the past ten years – both on stage and behind the scenes. When the acting troupe got a chance to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company two years ago, he decided to take his hobby more seriously.
“It was a big deal at the time and it was almost like being a professional actor,” said Mr Cockerill. “I thought I’ll keep going with this and registered with an agency, did some supporting artist work and see what came along. I have been learning lines ever since.”
With the mortgage paid off and more time available, Mr Cockerill has been able to feed his acting passions.
Projects have been readily available including a sci-fi film role and a spot at the Edinburgh Fringe last year for second world war theatre piece D-Day Dodgers.
“How many people can say they’ve been in a sci-fi film?” he added. “They had me in prosthetics and using a green screen for it.
“I was in Vera and the new series is on at the moment – it was a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss me’ but I was on about five times and I got paid for that so that’s cool.”
The father-of-one and stepfather-of-two grew up in Shotton Colliery and moved to Barnard Castle after a spell working in the brewing industry. His acting career has seen him take bookings at Raby Castle and secure a spot working with the Murder Mystery acting group hosting guest evenings.
But he has not forgotten his roots and is still planning to play a part in this summer’s Castle Players production.
To book tickets to Anywhere call the Hippodrome on 01325 405405.
He said: “What is exciting about this is it shows where all the millions of pounds have been invested.
“We can take customers around and you get to see what’s involved in theatre making as well as telling the story of the history of the site – all linked in with classic theatre from Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll.”
The former publican has been an integral part of the Castle Players amateur dramatics group for the past ten years – both on stage and behind the scenes. When the acting troupe got a chance to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company two years ago, he decided to take his hobby more seriously.
“It was a big deal at the time and it was almost like being a professional actor,” said Mr Cockerill. “I thought I’ll keep going with this and registered with an agency, did some supporting artist work and see what came along. I have been learning lines ever since.”
With the mortgage paid off and more time available, Mr Cockerill has been able to feed his acting passions.
Projects have been readily available including a sci-fi film role and a spot at the Edinburgh Fringe last year for second world war theatre piece D-Day Dodgers.
“How many people can say they’ve been in a sci-fi film?” he added. “They had me in prosthetics and using a green screen for it.
“I was in Vera and the new series is on at the moment – it was a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss me’ but I was on about five times and I got paid for that so that’s cool.”
The father-of-one and stepfather-of-two grew up in Shotton Colliery and moved to Barnard Castle after a spell working in the brewing industry. His acting career has seen him take bookings at Raby Castle and secure a spot working with the Murder Mystery acting group hosting guest evenings.
But he has not forgotten his roots and is still planning to play a part in this summer’s Castle Players production.
To book tickets to Anywhere call the Hippodrome on 01325 405405.
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