‘I like all of it’: Neil Baldwin, Staffordshire local hero, on a new play about his remarkable life

Actor Michael Hugo (left) who plays Neil Baldwin in the New Vic theatre’s production of Marvellous meets the real man before the dress rehearsal at the Newcastle-under-Lyme venue. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Today there will be a service in the Keele University chapel, led by former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to celebrate Neil Baldwin’s 76th birthday. Last night a play about Neil’s life opened in the innovative local theatre the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

But who is this Neil Baldwin? A top politician, or elite athlete, or concert pianist or footballer? No, this is Neil Baldwin the legend – a legend that I and this newspaper helped create. Neil turned up on the Keele campus in 1960, an engaging local schoolboy with learning difficulties who liked the place and kept coming. By 1964 he was there on the first day of the new academic year to greet new students cheerfully: “Welcome to Keele. I’m Neil Baldwin.” Some say he was wearing a dog collar – he certainly wore one later on, when he hitch-hiked around the country.