Captain fantastic (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Captain fantastic

8:14am Sunday 21st January 2007 in

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CAPTAIN Hook is generally considered to be the bad guy, but during this year's pantomime at The Anvil he helped to raise a record amount for charity.

Pantomime audiences at the Basingstoke venue donated almost £9,000 to the Save the Children Fund throughout the festive run of the Gazette Newspapers-sponsored Peter Pan.

Captain Hook, otherwise known as actor Gary Turner, played an important role in this, reminding the audience how lucky they were compared with other children around the world at the end of each performance.

He then told them they could help by putting any spare change they had in the Save the Children Fund buckets as they left.

The charity collects donations at the panto every year but Captain Hook's plea obviously had an effect as the total raised during the run doubled what was collected the year before and beat the previous record by £1,500.

To thank Mr Turner, Basingstoke Save the Children Fund presented him with a special certificate.

Bob Baker, chairman of the local branch of the charity, said: "We at the Save the Children Fund would like to say thank you to all the pantomime cast and the staff at The Anvil, who make us feel so very welcome each year.

"Their enthusiastic support is much appreciated and helps children across Britain and the world."