Noisy students spark theatre row

Actor and producer John Williams was upset by the behaviour of girls from the college on a trip to the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, and he has dismissed a letter of apology from the college principal as inadequate.

Mr Williams, whose stage name is John Judd, was in the audience with his wife, the 60s pop star Helen Shapiro, when they were disturbed by students they later identified as belonging to a party from the college.

In a letter to the chair of governors Mr Williams claimed they talked loudly throughout, giggling and opening cans of fizzy drinks.

'They also took it in turns to leave the theatre for short times and return later ... they completely spoilt our enjoyment of the play and that of the other audience members near us.

'The unruly girls were shushed many times by the audience near them. I did not become involved in any way until about ten minutes from the end when they had just destroyed another piece of dialogue in the play. I said ''Shut up'' and this led to much laughter and ''Hark at him'' type comments.'

Mr Williams said he and his wife were followed to the foyer by seven or eight girls who were saying things like 'Let's get him' and 'Let's do him over'.

In the foyer he reported the incident to the theatre manager Mr John Short while the girls continued making comments about him as they proceeded to leave the theatre. 'I called them "immature slags" in front of Mr Short and other witnesses,' said Mr Williams.

Supported

Mr Short has since supported Mr Williams claims and said he was not the only patron to complain about the behaviour of school parties in the audience. He has complained to East Sussex director of education Denise Stokoe.

Mr Williams' anger was fuelled when he later spoke to college principal Craig Pamphilon who told him the drama teacher had accused Mr Williams of calling the girls 'f'”'”-g slags'. At that stage he decided to write with his complaints to the chair of governors.

Mr Pamphilon told the Express he had apologised to Mr Williams and stressed: 'It was a very small number of a large party who contributed to the problem, which involved other schools, and they have been dealt with. This has been very embarrassing to the college and those students and hopefully it will never happen again. We take our good reputation in the community seriously.'

Mr Pamphilon wrote telling Mr Williams that a thorough inquiry into the incident had been conducted and it was clear two girls from the college sitting behind Mr Williams had been noisy. Their parents had been informed of the incident and the girls had been punished.

Mr Pamphilon said staff left the building with the college students and it was unlikely that any of their party had followed Mr Williams up the stairs, but Mr Williams and his wife have each written to Mr Pamphilon again reiterating their claim that it was Uckfield students who followed them.

Mr Williams told the Express an apology would have settled the matter early on but he heard nothing for two weeks. He saw the accusation of swearing as an attempt to deflect criticism away from the college pupils, and this had increased his annoyance.