ACTOR Richard Briers will launch a £3.5m theatre restoration project today.
The actor, famed for his role as Tom Good in The Good Life, who is also the patron of Newcastle Theatre Royal, will unveil the start of restoration of the Grade I-listed theatre.
It includes conservation measures to protect the external fabric of the building including the famous portico on Grey Street, which has suffered rainwater damage.
New seating will be installed at all levels, with new lighting, carpets and ventilation systems.
The theatre will be repainted, with the reinstatement of extensive gold-leaf work from the Victorian era.
Mr Briers said: “The Theatre Royal is one of our most distinguished theatres, with which I have a very long association, having first appeared here in 1958.”
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