An actor who played one of Dickens’s most colourful and well-known characters at festivals for decades has died.
Local thespian Colin Greenslade took on the role of the official Fagin and was a familiar face at the summer Dickens Festival and Dickensian Christmas events in Rochester.
Mr Greenslade passed away on Thursday, May 23 at a care home in Chatham where he had been living for about four years after his his wife Doreen died. He was aged 88 and had been suffering from dementia.
He was one of the original band of enthusiasts to take part in the parades and entertain the crowds since the first festival started in 1978.
The loveable rogue featured in the author’s famous novel Oliver Twist and was pictured with hundreds of young visitors to the town over the years.
And true to form, he showed his mischievous side by “pick-pocketing a pocket or two” along the High Street.
Sue Haydock, a former mayor of Medway, who has organised major events in the festival programmes, was a friend and has visited him in recent months.
She said: “He was the flare at the Dickens festivals, always having a laugh and having his picture taken with visitors outside the Guildhall.”
Following news of his death, there were also a flurry of tributes online.
Martin Goodhew, who worked with Colin, said: “Sad news for those who remember Colin Greenslade being shared on social media.
“The perennial official Fagin of the Rochester Dickens Festivals for many years passed away on the afternoon of Thursday 23rd May.
“I had a great respect, and enjoyed working with him at the festivals over the years.”
Another former colleague John Wells said: “As an amateur local actor Colin was a main stay of the Medway Little Theatre, in Rochester, Kent for many years.
“Also Colin was well known over the years taking on the character of Fagin in Rochester’s annual Dickens Festival where he was a prominent in the festival parade.
“I’ve happy memories of playing a scene with Colin in MLT’s production of John Whiting’s, “The Devils” in 1967.”
The Fagin character Colin most frequently played was described as a “receiver of stolen goods” and self-confessed miser in the book.
The ragged villain led his band of kidnapped children to thieve passersby. In return, he would give the young rascals led by the Artful Dodger a roof over their heads and a meal on the table while he lived off their ill-gotten gains.
This year cash-strapped Medway Council scrapped the June Victorian extravaganza as part of its cost-cutting measures.
In recent years it was cancelled because of Covid lockdowns.
It’s believed Colin made his last appearance in 2018.
He worked alongside fellow actor Brenda Gilliam Hill who dressed as Miss Havisham donning ghostly make-up like the fearsome spinster in Great Expectations.
Ms Gillian-Hill from Rochester died in 2011, aged 78 and she was given a full funeral procession along the High Street where she trod the cobbles for many years.
Details of his funeral are yet to be confirmed.
