A brief claim to fame in golden oldie

By STEVE JARVIS

Elaine Maudsley and Alf Bergus meet again under Carnforth station clock

IT'S enough to bring a lump to your throat. It's nearly 50 years since one of the movie industry's classic moments - the tearful farewell of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in the film Brief Encounter. The golden goodbye, which was shot at Carnforth station in Lancashire, became a classic weepie all across the world and thrust the market town into the limelight. Many of the town's residents played the part of extras, and this weekend, The Dukes Cinema in Lancaster is hosting a special reunion for all of the townsfolk whose contributions, however slight, helped create a classic. Perform Two of the local extras told of their memories after taking a trip back to the station to see how it has changed since they were there. For Alf Bergus, then 21, his appearance in the film Brief Encounter was just another night's work.

Alf was already working at Carnforth station as a fireman on the engines and, when the film crew asked him to perform the same role on the silver screen, he jumped at the chance.

Filming lasted just over a fortnight and he remembers meeting the film's other star Celia Johnson.

Alf, who lived at Nether Kellet for 60 years before moving to Halton, near Lancaster, said: "To me, the filming was very exciting, but the highlight was seeing Celia Johnson. I was only 21 and to me she was a beautiful woman, very sociable."

Through her attention to keeping the film crew of Brief Encounter fed and watered, Elaine Maudsley, now 69 and living on Dunkirk Avenue, Carnforth, earned her first walk-on part at the age of 19.

She was working in the refreshment room at the station, a job she had done since she left school at 14.

She said: "It was a very exciting time. My part is in the first two minutes of the film, I'm walking up the platform as a passenger waiting for the train and then I walk back down"

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