Taxis with A-listers and tea bag tips - young actors on first film

Young actors Oliver Briscombe and Anna Cook appear in new film The Choral

When Ralph Fiennes walks into a room, you feel his presence before you see him.

So says 20-year-old Oliver (Ollie) Briscombe, who stars alongside the Bafta and Emmy award-winning actor and director in new film The Choral.

The movie tells the story of a choral society which lost its male members during World War One, and was largely filmed in Saltaire, near Bradford.

Ollie, from Ripon, North Yorkshire, plays Lofty, who delivers telegrams in the fictional town of Ramsden, thought to be partly based on Huddersfield.

"He's very innocent," he says of his character.

"He doesn't understand the world he's stepping into."

Appearing alongside Ollie, playing another chorister, is Anna Cook, 13, from York.

Her part includes singing a solo rendition of Land of Hope and Glory, to try and persuade a chorister not to go to war.

For both young actors, The Choral was their first major film project, which meant their first trailer on set.

Ollie says it was a "sanctuary", where he could escape from the "heavy" themes of the film.

"It's a real experience, the first day stepping into your own trailer," he adds.

"You've got someone knocking at the door with your breakfast and it's your favourite. It's a bit of granola."

Anna spent longer than expected in her trailer, thanks to non-stop rain on the day she was supposed to be filming.

"I was stuck in it for nine hours," she says, but adds that she "got lots of food".

The Choral is directed by Nicholas Hytner, pictured with Anna

As well as Ralph Fiennes, the cast of The Choral features a host of famous faces.

Even the young actors got "very close" to the celebrities, Anna says.

"I was in the same taxi as Simon Russell Beale and Mark Addy."

Ollie recalls his first meeting with "all the old boys", at a rehearsal for the choral music in London.

"I'm just stood next to Alun Armstrong and Mark Addy. I've been introduced to them, and you've just got to sing, to harmonise."

He says it was "so nerve-wracking", but the rehearsal demonstrated the power of community shown in the film as "you've got to work together to make the music sound good".

"Luckily my character didn't have too much solo singing, so the nation's safe," he adds.

Oliver Briscombe (second from right) says after nine viewings, he is now able to watch the film without criticising his performance

Ollie met Ralph Fiennes at the first read-through of the script and says he knew he was there before he turned around to see him.

"He came in and you just felt the presence of Ralph Fiennes."

Ollie says Fiennes was "very professional".

"He's always in work mode," he said.

"Me and [fellow actor] Shaun Thomas would always try and make him crack.

"We got him to smile a few times."

Another A-lister, Mark Addy, gave Ollie a top tip on tea bags, a few weeks into filming.

Ollie says the cups he had drunk so far had "not been the best teas of my life".

But then, Addy revealed his own personal supply of Yorkshire Tea, telling Ollie: "Don't trust the sets to have your favourite tea brand.

"You need to bring your own Yorkshire Tea. You can't rely on people to have Yorkshire."

Anna says being on set was "very cool" with "lots of people running around"

Anna says her mum and dad were "very proud" when they saw The Choral on screen for the first time.

"Lots of people came and watched it with me," she adds.

Despite The Choral being her first taste of a film set, she says she wants to return.

"I kind of just miss it," she says.

Before that, though, Anna is starring in a theatre production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at York's Joseph Rowntree Theatre.

The first time Oliver watched the film on screen, he says he "couldn't face it".

"I had my eyes shut."

"I just picked apart my own performance. I couldn't tell you what the film's about."

But now, after his ninth viewing, he's "relaxed into it", he says.

"I enjoy the film for what it is and my character. I don't see myself in it anymore."

Alongside his studies at MetFilm School in Leeds, he has another feature film "on the way", he says, but is tight-lipped on the details.

"It's under wraps at the minute."

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