Praying for help .sx AS houses get older , things start to go wrong .sx Most of us from time to time find ourselves having to fork out for some new slates , a length of replacement guttering or maybe a bit of repair work on a cracked wall .sx With a bit of luck the bill will be counted in hundreds of pounds .sx But when our magnificent churches start showing their age , the bills can run into millions .sx And finding the money to pay is a clergyman's nightmare .sx TOM MOORE reports .sx CHURCHES are a big problem in Brighton .sx They are cracking up , crumbling and rapidly tumbling into a shocking state of leaky disrepair .sx The town's eight Anglican churches face a pounds7 million bill , just to restore them to safe and dry places in which to pray .sx And with starving millions worldwide taking first call on the pockets of charity givers , churchmen concede that collecting this sort of cash for bricks and mortar is going to be an uphill , if not impossible struggle .sx " It's a real headache , " says Canon Dominic Walker , Vicar of Brighton .sx " The problem is that the churches were mostly built at about the same time , between 1830 and 1890 , so they are all growing old together .sx " The roofs have started to leak and the stone and brickwork has started to crumble .sx " .sx St Bartholomew's in Ann Street needs about pounds1 million to put it right .sx Brighton's showpiece parish church , St Peter's in London Road , needs pounds500,000 .sx Repair work on St Michael's in Victoria Road will cost pounds400,000 .sx AND the bank-busting pounds2 million to pounds3 million needed by St Paul's in West Street means the church hall and vicarage will have to be sold to developers in order to pay the bill .sx Canon Walker says :sx " The ravages of rain , wind and salt air over the past 100 years or so have taken their toll .sx " We are not talking about raising money for 'luxuries' .sx We are talking about basic things such as repointing crumbling brickwork , mending roofs to keep out the rain and putting in new electric wiring to make the churches safe .sx " It is work that must be done urgently or the churches will become unusable .sx " .sx And here is a major dilemma .sx Even if , as a last resort , it was decided to close down a church , money would not be saved .sx " It would become the subject of a preservation order which would mean it could not be knocked down and sold to developers , " Canon Walker explains .sx " By law , we would still be obliged to maintain the building , even if there were no services there , and that would be a very costly business .sx " .sx So how can the money be raised ?sx The regular Sunday collection doesn't really help .sx " This is used to help pay the clergy and bills like heating and lighting .sx There are jumble sales of course , but you cannot raise pounds1 million at a jumble sale , " says Cannon Walker .sx " There are various trusts which specialise in preserving ancient buildings .sx The trouble is they tend to think the South East is rich enough to pay for its own churches so they concentrate their money on the North .sx " .sx One answer seems to be the employment of professional fund-raisers .sx ST Michael's decided on this solution when they launched their pounds400,000 appeal in September 1989 .sx They employed the London-based company Molineux Fund Raising and the decision seems to have paid off .sx " Already we have raised more than half of what we need , " says Kit Sharp , parish clerk at St Michael's .sx The first step was to persuade a number of influential people to become patrons of the appeal .sx These included chairman of the Arts Council Lord Palumbo and Brighton Pavilion MP Julian Amery .sx " The firm also prepares hundreds of letters for us asking for donations to the appeal , " says Kit .sx " We trawl through Who's Who before sending them out and also compile a list of everyone in Sussex who may be interested .sx " The fund raisers help us with the publicity and have advised us on the trusts most likely to support us .sx The whole appeal has been run on a professional and businesslike basis .sx It wouldn't have worked otherwise .sx " .sx Delighted as he is with the professional approach , Kit remains full of praise for the amateur efforts that have helped boost the appeal .sx But he adds :sx " Let's face it , it is much harder to raise money for bricks and mortar than it is to for starving children .sx But we have shown that it can be done .sx " .sx No nerves for talented Katie .sx FOR someone who has never acted in front of an audience before , 11-year-old KATIE DAVIES is showing bags of nerve .sx Every night until the end of September , the Tangmere youngster is playing the part of Myrtle Panmure in Preserving Mr Panmure at Chichester's 1,400-seater Festival Theatre .sx " I got nervous before the show for the first couple of nights , but I'm fine now , " says Katie .sx She was picked from more than 60 hopefuls for the part of precocious Myrtle , Mr Panmure's daughter , in Pinero's Edwardian comedy .sx Katie had a lot of lines to learn and some long words , such as 'rhapsodical' , which she admits she still doesn't know the meaning of .sx As for the character she plays , Katie thinks Myrtle is " obnoxious " and not at all like her .sx Commitment to the play means that Katie will be missing the first few weeks of term at her new school , St Margaret's , in Midhurst .sx But since she intends to make the theatre her career , she doesn't mind too much .sx She has had speech and drama lessons since she was four years old .sx Her current tutor is HILDA JACKMAN .sx " I'd like to do serious drama more than comedy , " says Katie , even though she raises a good few laughs as Myrtle .sx Scofield backs society that packs a Punch .sx ONE OF England's greatest actors has agreed to be patron of a fledgling Sussex literary society .sx Classical actor Paul Scofield has given his support to the Mark Lemon Society , named after the first editor of Punch .sx It was launched this summer to mark the 150th anniversary of Punch and to revive interest in Lemon , who lived in Crawley and was a close friend of Charles Dickens .sx Mr Scofield , who lives in Balcombe , said :sx " I agreed to be patron simply because it seemed to me to be a very interesting society .sx " I am a great fan of Dickens although I have gone off Punch a bit .sx It seems to have lost some of its charm and old character recently .sx " .sx Mr Scofield has just returned to Sussex after completing filming of the late Bruce Chatwin's play Utz in Prague and Hamburg .sx He is acclaimed by many as England's greatest classical actor and is best known for his portrayal of King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company , the West End play Amadeus and the film of Sir Thomas More's life , A Man For All Seasons .sx He was asked to be patron by society founders the Rev Michael Goode , rector of St John's , Crawley , and local historian Roger Bastable , who both felt that Mark Lemon's time in Crawley between 1857 and 1870 was largely unknown by younger generations .sx They are planning a number of literary events and outings and will hold the society's first meeting on September 14 at St John's Church , when extracts from the letters and diaries of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville West will be read .sx Unflappable Fred !sx .sx ( The face that's launched a thousand Coast to Coasts ) .sx FRED DINENAGE is the senior Coast to Coast presenter at the TVS news programme's Southampton headquarters .sx It's a job he's been doing for seven and a half years and the culmination of 27 years in television , mostly in the South and South East .sx Argus TV Editor MIKE HOWARD and photographer TONY TREE met the man dubbed the Grand Old Man of Television in the South .sx THERE are just fifteen minutes to go before the TVS regional news programme Coast to Coast goes on air .sx In the mixing gallery outside the studio all hell is breaking loose as tapes go missing , stories fall out of the running order and the director begins to pull out his hair .sx But in the studio itself all is calm .sx You can occasionally hear the sound of a pen on paper - but that's just Fred Dinenage completing a crossword in one of the many morning and evening papers he reads every day .sx If you hear any slurping - and you won't , Fred is much too polite for that - he might be sipping a last cup of coffee or sucking a mint .sx The crossword , the coffee and the mint are a firmly established part of Fred's ritual as he prepares for the main evening news bulletin .sx As always he will read the news with aplomb and authority .sx He's smartly , maybe fastidiously dressed , looks completely unflappable and is always ready with an easy quip to his co-presenter Fern Britton ( seen with him in our main picture ) and the technicians surrounding him .sx But in the final few minutes before the red light shows he's 'on air' , the jokes stop , he gets a final dab of powder from the make-up girl , shuffles a few papers and he's ready .sx " Good evening .sx There are reports tonight .sx .. " So begins his umpteenth newscast .sx His manner will be smooth and unhurried and his voice carefully modulated with no trace of his northern accent .sx It will remain that way until the final credits roll twenty minutes later .sx Fred says :sx " It is vitally important to be calm and appear unhurried and unflappable , even when the most diabolical things go wrong .sx " A newscaster's job is to present the news , not sell him or herself although we must let some personality get through because some of our stories and links need that .sx " And we have to be authoritative without being pompous and be aware that a light item shouldn't be taken at a rollicking pace because it might be followed by a piece of bad news .sx " .sx Fred , 49 , is a former Evening Argus journalist who was first persuaded to try television by another ex-Evening Argus journalist now BBC music presenter , Anne Nightingale .sx And he nearly lost his opportunity .sx He said :sx " Annie had told me how marvellous it was in television .sx All I wanted was a job on a national newspaper but I did arrange to go for a screen test and interview with the old Southern Television people in Southampton for a job presenting Three-Go-Round , a children's show which predated BBC's Blue Peter .sx " But on the day I overslept and missed the train so I went back to bed and forgot the whole thing .sx " The following Sunday morning the producer arrived and wanted to talk to the 'rude chap' who didn't turn up .sx I finally went for a test and was offered the job , initially for seven weeks but that became 18 months .sx " At first television terrified me but it all worked well and I came to love it .sx " After Three-Go-Round came a spell as a reporter on Southern Television's Day by Day news show and I was doing that at the same time as I began to do How , which became the ITV's longest running children's programme .sx " I then got a spot doing sport for Yorkshire Television and that led to full-time freelancing which I did for 18 years .sx " .sx In that time Fred worked for virtually every ITV company .sx You name the show and he's probably done it .sx He says :sx " Perhaps the greatest opportunity was covering the Olympic Games in Moscow and Munich for the network and becoming number two presenter on the ITV's flagship sports programme World of Sport .sx " I also hosted the Miss Great Britain Contest for five years which was a lot of fun .sx " But the problem with freelancing was that I was never at home .sx I have a 19-year-old daughter Caroline who as a child almost never saw me .sx When the twins came along I decided to pack in the freelancing and settle for one company .sx " I joined the staff here on Coast to Coast in 1984 .sx