Young Sherlock Holmes star turns lead counsel for The Inquiry

“It's a political thriller to a certain extent,” says Nicholas Rowe who plays Jonathan Hayden KC, lead counsel for the inquiry into the water scandal, “though I am always wary of the word thriller. Obviously it's a good way to sell a play and you just assume that people are going to be thrilled by it, but I certainly hope that that will be the case! What is interesting is that in Chichester I know water contamination has been a very big issue and a very big deal.”

Nicholas has experience of the issue from swimming – or at least wanting to swim – in an East Sussex river three years or so ago: “We were told by the landlord at the pub nearby that we really should not swim in the river. I swim in the Thames near where I live and I'm really not that bothered but it really started me thinking about it so we decided to go off and swim at Seaford instead but the point is that the sea also has issues, doesn’t it.

“(In the play) I am lead counsel for the inquiry and have been appointed by Lady Justice Deborah Wingate. My job is to ask the right questions and interview the right people. We are now quite a long way into the inquiry and I imagine that I've interviewed a great number of people. It's all really about how law and politics meet and what is great about this play is that it is a play that asks you to pay attention. It's a talkie play. There is a lot to listen to. There is a lot to take on board. It's quite a challenge for the actors to make it come to life however sparky and interesting the dialogue is, and if you arrive at the theatre after a long day in the office, as I say, you will need to concentrate. But I really enjoyed it when I read it.”

And the fact that it is a new play really puts them all in new territory: “I do think people have an appetite for this kind of drama. There is a lot of other theatre out there that deals with the lighter side of life and that's very, very welcome too but I do think this play feels very much part of zeitgeist. You see articles or interviews about the issue of water contamination but also this play really interestingly deals with the life of an inquiry.”

It's Nicholas’ Minerva debut. His only previous Chichester appearance was in the main house in a touring production of The Madness of King George.

As for film, Nicholas will be remembered for the ground-breaking 1985 movie Young Sherlock Holmes: “I'm reminded of it every now and again by people who for some reason are affected by it in whatever way, whether they were scared or whether they were fascinated by the effects. For a little while it felt like the only thing I had ever done but I've come to have very fond memories of it and I'm certainly aware of how much it does mean to people.

“It was a three-picture contract originally. That was what was in the ether but it actually bombed in the cinema. It didn't do very well and they had spent a lot of money on advertising. It came out at the same time As Back To The Future, I think, and people were saying that it felt like a spin-off of Indiana Jones but actually it was written before Indiana Jones but also I think the problem was that it just didn't have famous people in it.

"Nobody knew who we were but I do have fond memories of it.”​