Endeavour actors James Bradshaw and Sean Rigby have been reunited in a play which is set on the River Thames.

The Oxford-based Inspector Morse prequel concluded on ITV in March last year and the cast have been working on other projects.

James Bradshaw, who played pathologist Dr Max DeBryn, and Sean Rigby, who played DS Jim Strange, both appeared in Endeavour episodes for many years.

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They have now both been cast in a new production of a play based on Jerome K Jerome's classic novel Three Men In A Boat.

It is being staged at The Mill at Sonning Theatre in Sonning Common, near Henley, from June 6 to July 13.

James Bradshaw is appearing as George while Sean Rigby is cast as Harris, alongside George Watkins, who plays Jerome K Jerome.

When in 1889 Jerome K Jerome took his fictionalised friends up the Thames in a rowing boat  – describing Sonning as being “the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river…more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar” – his book was an instant success.

Within a year river boating licences had doubled.

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Director Joe Harmston said: "I’ve chosen to move the play’s action forward in time to the years shortly before the First World War to add some piquancy to our perception of Jerome, Harris and George’s antics.

Oxford Mail: Sean Rigby"I’ve also cast younger men than is sometimes the case. These three are not filling time at the end of their lives but searching for adventure in their prime.  In but a few short years they will have an existentially great game to be part of, and when that comes the world of pottering about on the river will in many ways be exactly what they are fighting for."

He added: "Identity is forged in adversity not in the milk and honey of peaceful prosperity. In the last decade the English have been asked questions about who they are and want to be in an unprecedented manner. Perhaps that’s why we return to our metaphorical oars now and take to the river where so much remains unchanged.

"What I hope we find as we pull against the flow of the Thames is three generous-spirited, open-minded men, bound together in the fellowship of shared experience. What I hope we take away is that we can inherit from our past qualities entirely suited to an exciting and very different future.”

James Bradshaw and Sean Rigby were both in all nine series of Endeavour, which launched with a pilot episode in 2012 and concluded in March last year, with an episode partly filmed at Blenheim Palace.

For more visit millatsonning.com

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

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