Call The Midwife's Fred Buckle star issues desperate 3-word plea ahead of Christmas episode
Call the Midwife star Cliff Parisi has issued a desperate plea as he continues his campaign to save his village pub. The Essex actor, who plays Fred Buckle in the BBC period drama, is helping The Queens Head in Littlebury near Saffron Walden has been closed for four months, but more than 400 supporters have now pledged to invest into buying it.
Cliff, 64, believes they can make the pub a success for the community, and took to Instagram in October to ask followers for their support in doing so. In a clip shared on October 2, he said: "Good morning you lovely people. So, look, this is what's happening, and I'm sure your aware of it. Up and down the country, in the little villages, in the big towns, pubs are shutting. Pubs are shutting because there's no need for some of them. Pubs are also shutting because the shareholders ain't getting enough profit of it so they're just shutting them down. They're turning them into houses - they're worth more money as houses.
"But the detriment to the community is devastating. Where do people go? The hubs of the community are the churches, the village hall, the pub, the shop, the butchers, the bakery, the post office - all of them are gone in most villages. We might be hanging on to our churches, we might be hanging on to our pub or our village hall... Let's hang on to everything that we've got - every asset in every village." In a passionate plea, he said: "Let's buy them."
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Cliff continued, saying: "The Queens Head, Littlebury - this is what I'm getting to. We're buying it. We're nearly there. We need the last push over the line to get it. It's fifty quid for a share. Just fifty quid. That's an investment into you, your community and your own property because it'll put your property value up if we own our own pub and it's stable and it's there forever. So let's buy it.
"If you want to get involved, just go on to the website, make a pledge. That will make all the difference to the community and it'll make all the difference to the surrounding villages and not only that, it'll serve Saffron Walden - we're just outside. Having another pub around Saffron Walden is benefit to everybody in Saffron Walden too and we're going to be serving some amazing food. I'll be doing a bit of cooking and a few celebrity chefs might be coming down to do a bit of cooking too. It's looking good for the future for us. So let's push it across the line as a community, as a team, we can do it!
More than four hundred people in the Saffron Walden area of Essex, including former EastEnders star Cliff have so far pledged their financial support for the Queens Head in Littlebury, and an offer has been made.
Greene King said it was a "difficult decision" to put the building up for sale, but added they are "no longer best placed" to run the pub. A Greene King spokesperson said: “Making the decision to sell a pub is never an easy one and after exploring all options, we no longer believe we are best placed to operate these pubs going forward. We have therefore made the difficult decision to sell The Queen’s Head in Littlebury for existing use as a pub and are also progressing an offer from a community group for The Ickleton Lion, which is subject to contract and relevant approvals."
Cliff is set to star in Call the Midwife's highly-anticipated Christmas episodes. Instead of the usual feature-length Christmas episode, there will be two hour long specials shown on BBC One over the festive period, and the producers are even promising a Yuletide cliffhanger.
The two episodes, which are coming before a new 14th season of the series in the new year, take place in Christmas 1969 before the show moves into the 1970s next year. The midwives of Nonnatus House are busy delivering babies just as the funfair comes to Poplar, adding fun to the frosty landscape. But that isn’t the only arrival as the medical team have to also deal with a surge in influenza and Hong Kong flu, while the residents are gripped by the news of an escaped prisoner they fear may be in the local area following a spate of break-ins in the neighbourhood.
Part 1 of the Call the Midwife Christmas special will air at 8pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Part 2 arrives on Boxing Day at 7:30pm.
