London Bridge - Charity event!

On the evening of Thursday 25th June, the cast of London Bridge headed down to the Walthamstow Stadium for an unlikely evening's fundraising - a night of greyhound racing. The evening was organised by Carlton, the show's producers, to raise money for the Walthamstow Stadium's Retired Greyhound Trust, and the races had names that fans of the show will immediately recognise: 'The Ravi and Sam Stakes', the 'Cliff the Chef Stakes', and the 'Jam Jar Stakes' By the end of the night, a very respectable £1000 had been raised, most of which will go to the Trust's Home Finding Scheme.
Pressed for time because of an over-run in the day's filming, some of the cast arrived late. And amusingly, Nicholas Pritchard, (who plays Millhouse and Jam Jar owner Freddie Chapel), had not arrived to present the £70 prize to the winner of the Freddie Chapel stakes, so an able stand-in was enlisted.

A surprise entry in the last race, 'The Jarvis and Jyoti Stakes', was Mrs Slocombe, a greyhound co-owned by actress Miss Wendy Richards. The entire cast of London Bridge bet heavily on the dog in thespian camaraderie but this wasn't enough to speed up the dog and Mrs Slocombe came in well down the field. There was cause to celebrate however as it was Sunetra Sarka's birthday (Sunetra plays Jyoti Solanki, Jarvis' girlfriend and co-worker at the Jam Jar), and a birthday cake was brought out and champagne quaffed to mark the occasion. After the evening at the Stadium, those with remaining energy headed to a night club, while the more sensible toddled home to bed, suspiciously wondering how it came about that Sharon Bloom (the executive producer of London Bridge) had won over £100.