Praed takes the beaten Trapp to city spectacular

ACTOR Michael Praed has told how the beatings he received at school have fed into his performance as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music at The Playhouse Theatre.

The former Dynasty star, 49, tells the Evening News today how he was subjected to random beatings and punishments from teachers at his Eastbourne prep school as a young child.

With his parents in Iran, he was shipped back to the UK at the age of eight and missed his family intensely as he was subjected to corporal punishment and harsh discipline at the school.

He might have left those days behind, but said the experience inevitably feeds into his portrayal of the initially cold, regimented Captain as he takes to the stage at the Playhouse.

"I haven't consciously drawn on my experiences, that's not how I work, but we are all victims of our history and I absolutely must bring to him the rigidity that I have emotionally. I must recall that loneliness of the soul somewhere," he told the News' Arts and Entertainment Editor, Liam Rudden.

Praed stars alongside Connie Fisher in The Sound of Music at The Playhouse until 20 February.