When my lovely friend Ranald Graham died of Motor Neurone Disease I felt I wanted to do something positive to support the Motor Neurone Disease Association who had been so wonderful during his illness providing practical and emotional support for all involved.  Motor Neurone Disease attacks the nerves that send messages to the muscles leaving those affected unable to walk, talk, eat and ultimately to breath.  Currently there is no cure and treatment is limited. The MNDA exists to help care for and support people with the disease and to help fund and promote research to bring about an end to MND. 

Although Ranald is probably better known as a screenwriter, penning TV classics like the Sweeney and The Professionals, I met him in the theatre when he directed me in a play for the Edinburgh Festival.  So it made sense for me to put on a play reading to try and raise funds for the MNDA that way.   Obviously this is not something I could do by myself and when I read an interview with veteran actor Joss Ackland who had lost his wife Rosemary through Motor Neurone Disease I had the mad idea of writing to him to see whether he would be interested in presenting a reading of King Lear, a role I know he had always wanted to play.

I couldn't quite believe it when he said yes and before I knew it he had rallied together the most amazing cast including Tony Britton, Greta Scacchi, Tony Robinson, John Nettles, Michael York, Honeysuckle Weeks, Barrie Rutter, Felicity Dean, Vernon Dobtcheff, Shaun Dooley, Tam Williams, Jack Tarlton and Chris Brand.   All have generously agreed to donate their time to putting on what is surely going to be the most brilliant play reading ever.   When the St James Theatre and the Old Vic both very kindly agreed to let us use their venues, I had joked to Joss that all we really needed now was Dr of Neurology and world renowned theatre director Jonathan Miller to direct.  "Well lets ask him" said Joss.  And so we did.  And guess what?  He said yes.     

We held two readings - well actually they were more like fully fledged performances with scripts - on the 22nd and 29th of September.

The response was incredible with full houses and a standing ovation on both occasions.   Thank you to everyone who could make it! 

We have raisesd over £30,000 from ticket sales and from kind donations and would love to reach our target of £50,000 so have decided to keep our appeal open until Christmas. Joss will be doing a couple of talks and selling his books and we are still selling our theatre programmes.  Please do support us if you can by buying a programme, making a donation or attending a talk. 

Love Lisa xxx