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Sutton Valence Care Home staff to feature in new film starring Brian Cox and Emilia Fox

12:00, 20 March 2015

Staff at Sutton Valence Care Home will be appearing in an upcoming film.

The 70-room residential home, in North Street, is serving as the set for The Carer, and some of its workers are featuring as extras.

Family members of residents will also lend a hand, but the residents themselves will not appear on screen.

Watch: New film to be shot in Sutton Valance Care Home

The film is about a care home resident who forms a close bond with an immigrant carer.

It features Hollywood actor Brian Cox, who appeared in The Bourne Identity, and TV star Emilia Fox, best known for her role in BBC 1’s Silent Witness.

Manager Liz Day, who has worked at the home for a year, said: “Some of the care team are going to be taking part and it’s created excitement. It’s good for us.


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“The set’s design team moved in on Tuesday and it’s not caused too much disruption so far.

“There are obviously a lot of people moving around, but they are only using communal areas and we have a lot of them.

The care home has been transformed
The care home has been transformed
Brian Cox stars in the film The Carer
Brian Cox stars in the film The Carer
The film crew have been creating a set at the care home
The film crew have been creating a set at the care home

“It might be different when all the cameras are here, though.”

Filming started on Wednesday and is expected to finish on Monday.

Liz Day, care home manger
Liz Day, care home manger
Graham Pigott, 68, whose mother Vera lives at the home, will be an extra in the film
Graham Pigott, 68, whose mother Vera lives at the home, will be an extra in the film

Mr Cox will play the role of Sir Michael Gifford, the film’s lead character, who has been described as an arrogant, ageing actor with a tragic back story.

He said: “There’s a very strong feelgood element to the movie and ultimately it’s about redemption and about being who you are.”

Earlier this week the cast spent two days filming at the Theatre Royal in Margate.

Actor Brian Cox is filming at Sutton Valence Care Home
Actor Brian Cox is filming at Sutton Valence Care Home

The theatre served as the set for an awards ceremony, and more than 100 extras from the community were needed to appear as the audience.

The film is the last one scripted by Gilbert Adair, a Scottish writer who once translated an entire novel from French which did not use the letter E, maintaining the same restriction.

He died in 2011 and his most famous work was as a screenwriter for 2003 film The Dreamers.

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