A SITCOM star is ready to release a feature-length film he has created about Harwich.

Film maker and former Hi-de-Hi actor David Webb has created a film about the historic town he was born in for his latest project.

The 75-minute film delves deep into the story of the Mayflower Ship which sailed its 100 passengers on a gruelling ten-week voyage across the Atlantic to America in November 1620.

Christopher Jones, the ship’s captain, hailed from Harwich and his house still stands in King’s Head Street.

Mr Webb’s film, called Portrait of Harwich, coincides with the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s historic journey to America.

The Manningtree resident said the most moving chapter in the film is the section on the Kindertransport which 10,000 children boarded to escape Nazi occupied Europe.

Many of the child refugees passed through Parkeston Quay.

Mr Webb said: “Among them was a young Leslie Baruch Brent, later to become a Professor of Immunology and who sadly passed away a few months after my interview with him.

“He talks about saying goodbye to his parents and sister for a final time and how he and the other children were temporarily housed at Warners Holiday Camp in Dovercourt.

“It was the place where I would later spend nine very happy seasons as a Yellow coat in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi.”

Portrait of Harwich is presented by Mr Webb’s daughter Victoria Lampard who is a news correspondent and presenter for ITV Anglia.

The film, being released next week, costs £14.99 and is available from The Harwich Society, East of England Co-op stores in Dovercourt and Manningtree, Suncrust Bakery, in High Street Dovercourt, Harwich Redoubt Fort, Townsends in Manningtree, or davidwebbfilms@btinternet.com.