Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Tony Head was the perfect person to be guest of honour at the Bath Cats and Dogs Home's Christmas bazaar.

The actor's pets include eight horses, a dog, two cats, a squirrel and a 15year-old goldfish. Tony, who plays Buffy's mentor Rupert Giles in the American TV show, lives at Timsbury with his two daughters and partner Sarah Fisher, who has been working with animals with behavioural problems at the RSPCA home in Claverton Down.

He was signing autographs for a time at yesterday's bazaar in the Pavilion to raise money for the home, which is in the midst of a major expansion programme.

"I think what the home is doing is superb, " he said. "I came along when Sarah was doing some work and was hooked. We are huge animal lovers.

"Anywhere that gives animals another chance is great and it has a no-kill policy."

Hundreds of people paid 50p to browse around the stalls, which included bric-a -brac, home-made cakes and festive gifts and decorations.

Visitors were also invited to sponsor a brick to be used in the construction of the new kennels and cattery.

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The star attraction at the bazaar will be Tony Head, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, who will be there from 10.30 to 11.30am to sign autographs and present annual awards.

If you are a fan, this is your big chance to see the man himself.

Tony and his wife, Sarah, are great supporters of the home and whenever they have the opportunity, they never fail to give their time and energy in support.

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The actor, renowned for his coffee adverts, and more recently in Buffy the Vampire, will be presenting the winner of the re-homed cat photo competition with the Rose Bowl. The fair will feature numerous stalls selling Christmas gifts and decorations.

There will also be an antiques stall, a toy stall and, of course, the traditional cake stall. And people will be given the chance to sponsor a long stay animal at the home.

The fair will take place on Sunday, November 18 at The Pavilion, North Parade and doors open at 10am.

Mr Head, who lives at Timsbury, is due to arrive between 11:30am and 12:30pm and doors close at 4pm.

Proceeds will go towards equipping the vet's suite and rebuilding the home.

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Buffy the Vampire Hunter star Tony Head was an appropriate guest at a Halloween party in Bath this weekend.

The TV actor presented prizes to the best dressed youngsters during the Halloween on the Green party in Landsdown on Saturday evening. Tony handed over prizes to the spookiest ghost and scariest witch at the community event.

After much deliberation the prizes were awarded to four-year-old skeleton Jake Finlayson and Sasha Brown, aged seven, who was dressed as a scary witch.

The event had been organised by The Friends of St Stephen's Allotments and Millennium Green to promote the local community.

Secretary of the Millennium Green Trust, Jean Finlayson, said the evening had attracted 400 visitors.

She added: "It was a terrific success - we are all delighted.

"There were load of children, parents and grandparents.

"It was not a fund-raising event but we passed a bucket around at the end and collected more than 𧴜. That will go to the next children's event we hold."

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Buffy the Vampire Hunter star, Tony Head, has given his support to the Royal United Hospital's Forever Friends appeal by agreeing to become its vice-president.

The appeal has just topped the £2.7m mark as it prepares to celebrate its second anniversary in October.

Mr Head, who lives at Timsbury, said: "I was shown around the new children's unit and was just blown away.

"Hospitals can be such intimidating places and it's difficult to make them friendly and welcoming. Everything was thought through on a really personal basis."

The appeal is also launching a limited edition badge specially designed for its Ted's Big Day Out event on October 19.

The suggested donation for Ted's Space Badge is £1.

Lisa Shaw-Williams, development officer at the appeal said: "We chose the theme of space for the appeal this year because it's the same year as Space Odyssey 2001."

The appeal team are hoping to top the money raised last year on Ted's Big Day Out by setting a target of £100,000.

The day sees people being encouraged to take their teddies on an adventure, to work, to school or anywhere to raise money for the RUH.

Tim Hobbs, head of fundraising at the appeal, said:

"We were totally overwhelmed by the amount of money raised by individuals and groups on last year's Ted's Big Day Out.

"We are hoping that even more people will register this year and help us to smash our target.

"All you need to do is call our hotline and ask for an information pack, which contains lots of exciting ideas and supporting items for the day."

The appeal is hoping to reach its £10m target within the next three or four years.

The money will be used to provide state-of-the-art equipment for children, cancer, cardiology and critical care patients - saving lives among the 500,000 people served by the hospital.

If you or your organisation would like to have a badge box to help raise money for the appeal, telephone 825825.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Tony Head was on hand to help launch a new website for a Bath business.

The television star, who lives at Timsbury, was at The Linen Press in Margarets Buildings to help launch an on-line web service.

Mike and Debbie Cavell, who have run their bed and bathroom accessory business for the last two years, say they needed to start up the web service to counteract a drop in trade they blame on Bath's controversial bus gate scheme.

Mrs Cavell said: "The launch went really well and we were supported by both businesses and customers."

"We need to pick up trade by the web as some weeks our trade is nearly 50 percent worse than last year."

"There are other things which could have caused the drop including foot-and-mouth but we are sure it is down to the bus gate.

"Tony is a regular customer and was glad to come down and help us out, we really appreciated it."

The couple moved from Sussex to start up the business in 1999 but say this is the worst trading period they have had to face.

The on-line service is on www.bathbeyond.co.uk.

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Actor Tony Head raised a few eyebrows in Bath as he spread out the word about his latest show. The Timsbury based star was continuing his charity work for terminally ill children by taking the role of Frank 'n' Furter in a benefit performance of the Rocky Horror Show.

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The Buffy the Vampire Slayer star and his wife, Sarah Fisher, who live in Timsbury, were the first people to contact the Friends of Chernobyl's Children (UK) offering financial support when it was revealed that the charity was setting up a branch in Bath.

The couple's help has made it possible for two children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear plan explosion to come to Bath in June.

Their family and friends have sponsored a further three children who are also coming to the city.

The youngsters will be members of a larger group which is visiting and taking part in educational and fun activities.

Bath restaurant Collingsbourne Ducis in George Street has offered to host a tea party for the Belarussian chidren during their stay.

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 left 80 per cent of Belarus residents exposed to radiation 300 times greater than that released by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined.

FOCC is a non-profit making charity which aims to relieve the suffering of children still affected by providing family placements.

Medical research shows that bringing children out of this contaminated atmosphere for one month each year boosts their immune system and increases their life expectancy, which is currently just 32 years.

The local group has to raise £15,000 each year for the next five years to be able to offer children one month's respite care.

It costs approximately £300 to give a Belarussian child one month's recuperation in this country - this includes air and coach fares, trips out and a group interpreter.

The charity will meet the full costs of these visits, which will include optical, dental and health checks, 12 months' supply of vitamin tablets, fresh healthy food and lots of tender care.

All donations made out to Friends of Chernobyl's Children and sent to The Treasurer, Friends of Chernobyl's Children, c/o 5 Oriel Gardens, Bath, BA1 7AS.

Or visit the charity's website at www.focc.org.uk.

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In fact, the former star of the famous 1980s Gold Blend coffee ads, who lives at Timsbury, has deliberately taken on an unsympathetic role in "Two Below Zero," the latest in the Silent Witness series starring Amanda Burton, which is screened next Monday and Tuesday.

It is a world away from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the teen scream hit in which he plays school librarian Rupert Giles, Buffy's mentor. The one thing the two characters have in common is that they both enjoy the company of young women - but in very different ways.

"He just fancies teenage girls, " grins Anthony, describing Henry Hutton, his character in the Silent Witness two-parter.

"I wanted to explore the scenario of when is it all right for an older man to like younger girls and when it becomes too much, when it becomes unacceptable.

"Hutton is not a paedophile, for which there can be no sympathy and no excuse. He is an exmilitary type who becomes infatuated by young girls. But then, when a series of girls end up being killed, he becomes the prime suspect."

It is rare for Anthony to return to the UK for a role these days, as his career in America has taken off since those coffee ads caused such a stir.

He co-starred with Sharon Maughan, the actress wife of Trevor Eve, in the commercials which cast him as her handsome neighbour always running out of coffee. The 'will they, won't they?' campaign ran for nearly ten years and sparked a separate series in the States under the US brand name of Taster's Choice.

Success was a double-edged sword for the man who found that screen roles dried up in Britain, despite a flourishing stage career. "I was box office, I could put bums on seats in the theatre, " he says wryly. "But TV roles just weren't happening.

"I was earning a decent crust off the commercial, so I was able to pick and choose a bit. But if you are not in the public eye and seen on screen, then your media profile diminishes.

"That's when I decided to try my lot in the States."

There was no instant success for the 47-year-old who admits that it was his partner, Sarah, who snapped him out of a downward spiral.

"I was sitting over in the States twiddling my thumbs, while she was back in England having to cope with work, our two daughters and the home. Frankly, she told me to stop moaning, get off my bottom and do something positive, like taking acting classes.

"I bristled a bit at that - I had been to drama school after all, " he says in mock outrage.

But he signed up with Milton Katzelas, whose pupils have included Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.

"His teaching is about attitude to life as well as acting and he is held in huge regard there. When he walks into a class everyone applauds - that's very West Coast."

It obviously worked as Anthony landed a leading role in the sci-fi series VR.5. It was pulled after only a few episodes, but soon afterwards he was sent the script for Buffy.

"I remember the first time I read it I was sitting in a restaurant and I just started laughing out loud. The other diners must have thought I was mad but I hadn't read anything like it before, " he recalls.

"They handed me a contract to sign before the audition, which turned out I'd committed myself to seven years. But the show's great fun to make and it's great to be associated with such a success.

"I can appreciate what I've got now because I've known what's it's like not to have very much.

Everyone thinks I made a fortune out of the coffee ads. But it was only two or three years down the line that I started earning any real money.

"I was always cautious with what I earned and I tried to live within my means because I didn't know where the next job was coming from."

Now he spends eight months of the year in California and the rest of it at his country home with Sarah, an actress and aromatherapist, and their daughters Emily, 11, and nineyear-old Daisy.

"I work long hours and I'm away from home for periods of time.

"But the family comes out to America for a couple of months at a time and when I'm home I can spend a lot of time with them.

"That was what was great about working over here, especially playing a character like Hutton. It's been a great area to explore as an actor because I didn't want him to come across as being evil, pure and simple.

"I don't want people to see him as black and white in any way. I wanted to show there were different aspects to his character, otherwise it becomes onedimensional.

"I used to play a lot of baddies when I was younger, but I always used to try and make them interesting - otherwise people tend to turn off very quickly."

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Mr Head, well known for his starring role in the American cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gold Blend coffee adverts, is patron of the charity's home at Claverton Down in Bath.

The television star, who lives in Timsbury, even brought his dog Christy along to join in the fun. Organisers are still counting the cash raised from the successful event which benefited from glorious weather.

In recent years Mr Head has been heavily involved in charity events for the home which gives shelter to more than 300 homeless animals each year.

Last year he helped to launch a £35,000 appeal to improve the lives of dogs that have been abandoned or mistreated by creating an agility paddock to give the animals an area to stretch their legs in.

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Bob Jenkins' column about junk phone calls and his dreaming that the person on the other end might, just might, be Kristen Scott Thomas, made me smile.

When my family lived in Washington DC, we were plagued, like everyone else, by a relentless succession of call centre pitches. I was so heartily sick of them that I just automatically tuned out when I answered the phone at certain times of day, biding my time until the caller took a breath and I could get a word in.

Then one day I realised that the speaker on the other end was actually saying something I wanted to hear. Sheepishly, I had to admit to her that I had not been listening to very much of what she'd been saying and would she please start again! That taught me a valuable lesson: now I pay attention to the first few sentences just in case they might be of real interest before I deliver the killer reply, "I'm sorry, we live in a listed building." That (almost) always stops them in their tracks and we can both hang up politely.

This habit of well-mannered attention for the first few seconds stood me in good stead the other evening. I was outside, inspecting one of our rabbits for an unspeakable unpleasant malady when my youngest daughter Julia answered the phone and, not recognising the caller, passed it over to me. With the ten pound doe cradled upside down in the crook of my left arm, I took the phone ready to inform the imagined double glazing firm (or whomever) that the council would never let us put in PVC and then hang up.

"Have you been writing extremely pleasant things about me in the local paper?" a man asked.

Duh... "I don't know..." One of the furthest things from my mind a moment previously had been the publication two days earlier in the Chronicle of my letter praising Bathonian Anthony Stewart Head's intelligent and enjoyable performances as Rupert Giles in the equally remarkable television programme Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, that voice sounded eerily familiar. A wild stab at the impossible "Are you Tony Head?" (I instantly cringe at my flabbergasted tone of over-familiarity).

Hearing that, one daughter began to shriek and suddenly the other two had appeared from nowhere.

"Yes, I am."

Stunned disbelief, pandemonium and the most radiant smiles I have seen on the faces of my three girls for months.

Fortunately the rabbit, still upside down, was unperturbed by the screaming and bouncing around and lay quietly in my arms. Anthony Head is a successful and well-known actor yet he seemed genuinely pleased and touched that someone had written positively about him in the local paper. When I mentioned that my children had ME, he asked sympathetic, pertinent questions.

Realising that all three are Buffy fans, he offered to send them signed photos. Even more tremendous excitement. I had cautioned that our post had been worryingly unreliable lately, with a couple of vital pieces of mail never having been delivered; the next day Anthony Head appeared on our doorstep with the promised pictures.

Take heart, Bob Jenkins! If someone shows Kristen Scott Thomas your column, perhaps on day you will answer the phone and then not be able to stop smiling for a fortnight. At least you can dream.

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The best-selling literary author Kate Atkinson recently wrote a newspaper diary chronicling her month-long national book signing tour. Each Thursday entry ended with: "Back home just in time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Now not one but two of your hardened television reviewers have admitted to being hooked on it and tonight Matthew Mills mentioned the show in the same breath as the hugely successful and respected ER. (Proof, if proof were needed, that we are in good company here).

Perhaps Claverton Dogs and Cats Home, which recently asked for suggestions for fundraising, doesn't quite realise what a treasure they have in the patronage of Anthony Stewart Head who plays Rupert Giles in Buffy and whose home is in Bath.

Giles is not a typical American stereotype of a caricatured British librarian, but a fully rounded character who is allowed to be brave, angry, frightened, confused, enormously touching and often extremely funny. David Boreanaz (Angel--you can guess what he's like!) may have appeared on Richard and Judy and was probably mobbed by young girls in Oxford Street afterwards, but this household got just as fired up by the Chronicle photo of Giles at the dogs' home that same week and one of my daughters roams Bath, armed not with a wooden stake but an autograph book just in case he should suddenly step out of Waterstones or the library right in front of her.

I would not presume to suggest any calls on his brief times in Bath for fundraising, but perhaps the dogs' home could make some imaginative use of his interest in it. It is difficult to get too excited about Johnny Depp's fleeting visit to Bath when actors as fine as Anthony Stewart Head call it home.

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Local actor Tony Head, who stars in television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer,and his wife, Sarah Fisher, will launch the exhibition at noon. On show at Bath Library in The Podium, it tells the story of the Claverton home and gives details of the 2m improvement project which has just been completed. The exhibition runs until Saturday during normal library opening hours. Ms Fisher, a dog behaviour counsellor, occasionally works at the home.

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Local actor Tony Head was happy to back the 2m project having just returned from a busy filming schedule in the United States where he stars in the teen drama "Buffy The Vampire-Slayer.

Mr Head has long been a supporter of the home at Claverton, where his wife Sarah Fisher, a trained practitioner, occasionally works.

They were in Bath yesterday to launch some eight months of building work at the home, which will see a new reception area, new kennels and a new car park.

An exhibition giving details of the improvements project and telling the story of the popular Claverton home will be on display at Bath library in The Podium from Saturday.

Home administrator Jan Clare said: "We were quite lucky to get Tony along to support us. We were delighted when he said he was able to come."

She said everyone connected with the home was looking forward to the work eventually starting.

Ms Fisher was at the home carrying out a new American training method called T -touch, designed to help pets overcome a variety of health and behavioural problems.

She was experimenting with the new technique as research for an article she was writing for monthly magazine Your Dog.

John Hobhouse, chairman of Bath RSPCA, said the starting date for the works programme was changing on an almost daily basis.

He said contractors would probably be on site by the end of April with the car park first in line for a complete overhaul.

He added that work on the new kennels will begin by the end of May and work on the new reception centre, seen as the cornerstone of the redevelopment, some time in July.

He said it was hoped that all the work would be finished by Christmas.

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The star of the Gold Blend adverts and Buffy the Vampire Slayer said: "I live just outside Bath and became a patron of BODS when my daughters were in Carousel two or three years ago. Now another of my daughters, Daisy, is in Oklahoma!, so I am greatly looking forward to it.

"It was fun watching the rope-twirling, but I must admit I didn't want to have a go myself."

The show starts on March 14.

Sources

More Bath Chronicle articles: 1986-1999

Page created August 1998; last updated January 12, 2002. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.