The writer of a local TV pilot has found himself acquainted with a major soap star in the most surreal of circumstances. During a routine location scouting exercise, the Oswestry-based writer spotted a property that immediately piqued his curiosity due to the name of it, but little did he know a famous TV star would be sitting inside!
Paula Lane, who rose to fame on ITV’s Coronation Street and only left our screens in Emmerdale recently, just so happened to be visiting family in the area when the writer of care-home based comedy drama, Henry House was unwittingly drawn to the property she was staying in due to the house sharing the same name as his Henry House main character.
“We were genuinely scouting for a property for our main character’s family home,” explains Gareth Owain David Thomas. “Her name’s Izzy Orchard and this was ‘Orchard Cottage’. So I just thought, ‘perfect!’”
But Gareth had absolutely no idea that that decision was about to lead him to a national soap star. Paula took the time to talk to Gareth all about Henry House and his future plans to bring in some more household names to further bolster the show, as he and his team prepare to pitch to networks in the very near future. A show that already boasts its fair share of soaps stars (including some Paula has already worked with!) She even took to social media to share the surreal chance encounter from her own point of view, posting, “This was nuts today! What a lovely introduction though @rockinghorsemedia. Talk about serendipity.”
A pilot episode of the star studded Henry House, written and directed by Gareth and produced by Oswestry-based Rocking Horse Media, has already been filmed. But whilst the local production company do have a proven track record for working with big name soap stars, we wouldn’t mind betting they have probably never met one like this before…
