Little Britain star joins church fight
6:35am Friday 4th July 2008
ONE of Britain's best-known actors is backing the campaign against plans to concrete over graves at a Hampshire church.
Little Britain star Anthony Head, who also starred in cult US series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, will accompany his elderly father to an ecclesiastical court hearing that will decide if the proposals should go ahead.
The row centres on plans to build a chapel over five graves at St John the Baptist Church, Burley.
One of the graves is that of Mr Head's grandmother, Peggy Grant, who was killed by an IRA bomb in 1922 when her husband was on military duty in Ireland.
The vicar, the Rev Diane Webster, said the church looked at various possibilities but the plan being put forward was the only suitable solution.
She added: "Although some headstones will have to be moved the graves themselves will not be interfered with."
Mrs Webster said St John's was "very distressed" about the bad feeling the scheme had caused, adding that it had not been church's intention to cause upset.
Objectors claim that the chapel should be built at the back of the church on a site currently occupied by a storage shed.