A MUSICIAN from East Lancashire is set to be remembered as the surprise hero of the Titantic tragedy when a new film about the doomed liner is shown at cinemas across the area this month. Among those eagerly awaiting the release of the movie Titanic is John Greenwood, 69, of Burnley Road, Colne, who has devoted half his life to researching the story of the ship and its band leader, Wallace Hartley. He thinks the band leader, who along with his musicians played on as the Titanic sank, should have been one of the movie's main characters. Wallace Hartley, who was born at 92 Greenfield Road, Colne, in June 1878, was the man who kept the band playing as terrified passengers awaited their fate. Here JEREMY RICHARDS investigates the story behind the Titanic film.

IN 1980, the film Raise the Titanic hit the cinema screens at a cost of £35 million and sank with audiences. Impresario Lord Grade joked it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.

Seventeen years later the blockbuster Titanic, from Terminator director James Cameron, broke all records by becoming the most expensive film ever made at a rumoured £120 million or upwards depending on which figures you believe.

But the reaction at its Royal premiere in London suggests the latest re-telling of the greatest sea tragedy in history will prove a massive hit when it is released on January 23.

When it comes to cinema screens in East Lancashire the film will have an element of added interest. The Titanic's bandmaster and one of the heroes to emerge from the tragedy when the liner struck an iceberg in April 1912 was Wallace Hartley, of Colne.

He is one of Colne's most famous sons and a memorial holds pride of place on one of the main roads into the town.

John Greenwood, a member of the British Titanic Society, said he would be seeing the film at the first opportunity.

He added: "It is a legend that is never going to die. Some of my friends saw the premiere and said Wallace Hartley was not one of the main characters in the film but if I had my way he would have been."

American actor Jonathan Evans-Jones plays the role of the bandmaster and the band appear in several scenes as the camera pans the elegant interiors painstakingly built for the film. Eighty-five years on the Titanic legend is as strong as ever and still captures the imaginations of people who have never set foot on a boat, never mind a luxury liner. More than 3,000 books have been written, conspiracy theories have grown about whether it was actually the Titanic and not a sister ship that went down and films still capture the imagination.

When she was launched in Belfast in 1911 the Titanic was the largest moveable object ever built, a small floating town with sumptuous salons and immense luxury.

The latest book to study the history of the "unsinkable" ship, The Titanic by Geoff Tibballs, makes several references to Wallace Hartley and the heroic role he played in helping to calm frightened passengers as the ship sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. It also contains photographs of Mr Hartley and his band and his funeral cortege making its way past Colne Town Hall watched by massive crowds.

Mr Hartley, who was 33 years old, was an accomplished violinist recruited from the Mauretania and he led the eight-strong band.

The band continued to play to calm frightened passengers and reassure them that everything was under control as the ship was sinking. When the sea was about to engulf them Hartley told the band they could try and save themselves but they stayed and played one last tune, believed by many to be Nearer My God to Thee.

Interest in the Titanic story has already risen because of the film. The BBC has released an audio tape of the book on the sinking A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. It is read by actor Martin Jarvis, who plays Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon in the film.

When the film, starring heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, opens cinema-goers in East Lancashire will be able to marvel at the special effects that bring the sheer scale of the liner and the tragedy to life.

They will also be able to spot Wallace Hartley "reincarnated" on the big screen 85 years after his death.

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