The woman behind the hit ITV wartime drama Home Fires is coming to Chester to give a special talk on her unusual family history.
Julie Summers, who wrote the book Jambusters, which was later adapted by ITV to become Home Fires, will appear at the Grosvenor Museum on November 5 to talk about her famous grandfather Philip Toosey, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War, and was later portrayed by Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Guinness won an Oscar for his depiction of Colonel Nicholson in the film, which was loosely based on real events such as Philip Toosey’s role in overseeing the building of a bridge over a major river during the war.
Julie said: “My grandfather was a merchant banker in civilian life but had been an active officer in the Territorial Army since 1925. When he was caught up in Singapore, the worst military defeat in British history, he refused to take the easy way out and be evacuated to India but chose to remain with his men. His story is one of bloody-minded determination not to give up in the face of an implacable enemy.”
“My talk explores the real man behind the bridge on the River Kwai.”
Julie will also be talking about the huge success of her Jambusters book as a second series of Home Fires is currently being filmed for ITV at various locations in Cheshire.
Set against the back drop of the most dramatic summer of the Second World War, the new series is set to bring the anxieties and fears of the Blitzkrieg and the Battle of Britain to screens.
“It is quite the most exciting thing that has happened to me in my career and I am not yet sure what it is going to mean for the future,” said Julie. “As my agent said to me recently: ‘Hold on to your hat’. Never in a million years did I think it would be so successful when I wrote it.”
Julie’s talk is being presented by the Chester Lecture Society at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester on Thursday, November 5 at 7.30pm.
Doors open at 7pm and admission is £7. Tickets are available on the door, or by calling 01829 782262.
