when I was 17 he died so he never saw what I ended up going on to do .
when I was 17 he died so he never saw what I ended up going on to do .
I ’ ve always been a massive fan of actors like Jeff Bridges and John Cusack , actors who have not always done the right movie or probably made the right career move . They ’ re probably the kind of actors who drive their agents mad by going , “ Oh no , I don ’ t want to do that massive big blockbuster , I want to do this interesting part .” I think that ’ s also been the way I ’ ve been . I remember being a bit skint and I had not worked much for about four or five months and on the same day I got offered an episode of Poirot , which was a nice amount of money or a sort of extended sketch , which meant a week long filming with Victoria Wood in a Christmas special where she was doing a light-hearted take on bonnet drama , a Larkrise to Candleford so she did a bit of sketch called Larkpies
to Cranchesterford and that was very , very little money but there was no way I was going to go and just play a copper in Poirot when I had the chance of working with Victoria Wood .. I ’ m not saying I was offered Han Solo and turned it down , but on a much smaller scale , those are the choices I ’ m always going to make .
Jason : I was looking through IMDB at the extensive list of things that you have appeared in ; it does go on and on and on . It ’ s a long list . What ’ s been your favourite role to play ?
Dan : I think certainly a game changer for me was when I was in Jimmy McGovern ’ s The Street . I think it was such a high profile job , working with Jane Horrocks and Tim Spall and Jim Broadbent . In terms of the way I was looked at and in terms of me being able to show what I could do , it was a big , big deal .
Mount Pleasant has been in my life for about ten years , loosely , so that has made a massive change to what I do . But , I ’ ve always tried to offset it with doing something completely and utterly different . After the first series of Mount Pleasant I went off to the Royal Shakespeare Company and did their Christmas show which was an adaptation of a book called
The Mountie and his Child and I played the clockwork mouse .
Jason : That ’ s quite different .
Dan : Yeah , that was a script that I read and I went , “ Well , this is absolutely impossible to do on stage . Where do I sign ?” I like to keep shoving strange things like that my way . But Mount Pleasant was a big one . It initially started as a table read for the BBC and it was a half hour sitcom at the time and the BBC decided they couldn ’ t work it out , it ‘ straddled the channels ’, as they like to say , so it didn ’ t make it , and then ITV had a sniff at it for a while and then the Head of Comedy from the BBC moved to Sky and she went , “ I want that show ”. At that time Sally Lindsey was pregnant so we had to wait another year so it was already like two years since we had done this table read and then we eventually started making it . So , yeah , it ’ s like nine or ten years of being in my life . Quite extraordinary .
Jason : I imagine it is . You ’ ve been in everything . The joke we always had at home was ‘ you ’ re only really an actor if you ’ ve been in The Bill and Casualty .
Dan : Absolutely .
Jason : And in some of those iconic shows you ’ ve been in three or four times with different characters .
Dan : I know , and yes , I ’ ve had two Heartbeats , I ’ ve had about four Casualties and I think … I think about three times in The Bill but one of those was a two hour special so it was quite a big one . I think that adds up to being six Bills . I ’ ve done all of those , but never done the soaps . I ’ ve never set foot in a square or on the cobbles .
Jason : Is that because you haven ’ t been offered them or is it not something you would do ?
Dan : I ’ ve actually been offered Coronation Street twice I think . Once , weirdly enough was to be the boyfriend or love interest of Sally Lindsey , when she was still in it and , in fact , I ’ ve been up for about three jobs which would have partnered me with her before Mount Pleasant came along . So , there was obviously some kind of strange destiny there . But the soaps have never really come knocking ; I ’ m certainly not averse to it .
Jason : Soaps are a very different type of work aren ’ t they ?
Dan : It ’ s a whole different ballgame , yeah . I ’ ve got friends who have been in
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