Wirral singers wanted for Wilfred Owen film (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral singers wanted for Wilfred Owen film

12:00pm Thursday 28th June 2012 in News By Craig Manning

SINGERS are needed for a new film about wartime poet Wilfred Owen's time as a choirboy at a Wirral church.

Christ Church-Remembered is a celebration in words and music, of his time at Christ Church in Oxton.

It features his best known poems, set against music that was written whilst Wilfred attended Sunday School there over 100 years ago.

Coronation Street director Gordon 'Illy' Hill, who has worked closely with Liverpool writer Jimmy McGovern, wants strong singers to appear in the congregation at the film's climax performing a rousing version of the well-known hymn Jerusalem.

The production is the work of Oxton-based songwriter Dean Johnson and organist Paul Broadhurst, and stars Port Sunlight actor Christopher Lee Power.

Dean told the Globe: "Christ Church was a very popular place of worship, with 1,000 people attending every Sunday.

"We want to recreate the atmosphere of when Wilfred was here, and hope as many people can come along to be part of a piece of history."

The filming will take place at the church in Bessborough Road, Oxton on Saturday, July 14 at 7pm.

Born in Oswestry in 1893, Wilfred was brought up in Birkenhead and is recognised as one of the greatest voices of the First World War.

He also has a road named after him, on the former site of Birkenhead Institute, which is now a housing estate.

In 1915, he enlisted in the British Army and was killed, aged 25, on November 4, 1918, during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors in Northern France.

A musical about his life heads to London's West End later next month.‏

Written by Dean Johnson, Bullets and Daffodils deals with his life before and during the conflict.

It will be staged at the Jermyn Street Theatre near Covent Garden.

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