Dave Berry, from the Dave Berry Memorial / Man Coffáu Dave Berry Facebook group

To all who knew film historian Dave Berry, a memorial event is to take place at the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff on Friday 23rd April. There will be a matinee screening of Sidney Gilliat’s classic Welsh-themed movie Only Two Can Play (1962), then the memorial itself in the evening, from 6.15 – 8pm. The organisers promise that “there will be lots to share – tributes, memories, clips, and no doubt tears and laughter … hopefully we will do him proud”.

An obituary notice has now been published in The Independent. The Bioscope’s obituary notice for Dave (with plenty of tributes in the comments) is here.

Update: Here are details of the memorial event (with slight variations from information previously published):

Dave Berry Memorial Event

Fri 23 April • Gwe 23 Ebrill
Join us for a celebration of the life and work of our dear friend and colleague Dave Berry who died earlier this year at the age of 66. The event starts at 2.30pm with a screening of Only Two Can Play.

The evening session at 6.15pm includes personal contributions from his friends and colleagues and clips from some of Dave’s favourite films.
All are welcome.

“A moment in Dave’s company was something to treasure. Acerbic, fun, funny and generous, he was one of the great practitioners of journalism in Wales as well as one of its great characters. Our feelings for him went way beyond friendship and affection — but he was too self-effacing to recognise that. He’d interviewed everyone from the Rolling Stones to prime ministers. And of course he loved films. He was an original – and irreplaceable.”
Steve Groves, Western Mail.

+ Only Two Can Play
Fri 23 April • 2.30pm • Gwe 23 Ebrill
UK/1962/106 mins/PG . Dir: Sidney Gilliat.
With Ken Griffith, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough.

Described by Dave Berry in his book Wales And Cinema: The First Hundred Years, this is “undoubtedly the funniest of all Welsh screen comedies, a coruscating, almost sardonic view of Welsh insularity and punctured male vanities.” Sellers is on great form as John Lewis, a bored librarian, henpecked at home until the wife of a local councilor sets her sights on him.

We hope that this event will be introduced by Dave’s partner Gerhild Krebs, an archivist and film historian.

You can book for both events in advance, should you wish. This might be advisable as the cinema’s capacity is approximately 200.

1. The general public will be charged for the matinee but fund contributors can enter free of charge – give your name/s to the box office when booking and / or collecting your ticket/s as they will have a list of the contributors.

2. There will be no charge for the evening event but again give your name/s to the box office when booking or collecting your ticket/s.

For information see attachment or click here: http://www.chapter.org/18907.html (Place the cursor in the centre of the screen on the image of the April Magazine and Calendar, ‘View in fullscreen’ will appear, click on this to enlarge the image; there is a small white arrow in the middle, on the right hand edge of the image, level with the table top – click this until you arrive at page 29.)

If you have enquiries, please contact Sally Griffith, Chapter Cinema Manager, or Iola Baines, National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, E-mail iba [at] llgc.org.uk