your life is just unbelievable and I had
things in the press where they’ve rung up
previous girlfriends - one in Australia for
instance. They did a whole piece on me
called ‘lady-killer then and lady-killer now’
and a picture of me kissing my 17-yearold girlfriend in a photo booth. They’d
obviously got hold of her in Australia
and said that old Brian’s doing well; let’s
get some story out there about his past.
It was interesting to see all that and to
realise what people do have to cope
with and of course I’ll say there are far
more good points than bad point and I’m
not complaining at all. Being thrust into
that level of limelight is a massive shock
and I can understand why people’s lives
fall apart you know… mine’s nothing
compared to others, it’s just a little small
moment in my life but it was a fascinating
experience.
about four or five years. I used to go back
and take in the Fairclough foster children,
I was the fostering social worker called
Donald Worthington with a big shock of
70s hair.
Tell us about your final scene in
Coronation Street, it was quite
dramatic.
(Evil Richard tied his family up in a van in
a garage and attempted to gas them all,
including himself, with the engine running.
That didn’t work so he sped off with the
terrified Gail and her children and drove
into the canal. Gail and the kids were
rescued but Richard drowned, leaving
Gail with a mountain of debts and a
lifetime of horrible memories)
It’s been well documented that Simon
Gregson who plays Steve McDonald
had to take some time out of the show.
He suffers from depression, but for me
he’s my favourite actor in the show and
when I joined I remember thinking he
was a brilliant actor. He’s so natural and
he makes everything real, he can turn
on a sixpence and he’s doing it day in,
day out. Then there’s David Nielson who
plays Roy – these are normal people and
David’s always been normal - he just gets
on with life, they’re just down to earth.
It was brilliant because they used five
cars for that stunt. We had two cars
underwater and a tank for two days at
different heights and you’ve got your
eyes closed you are weighted down so
you don’t float and you each have a guy
looking after you underwater, each person
has a minder because it was quite a
dangerous stunt.
You’re underwater and you have your
eyes closed and you’re breathing through
this apparatus and then they tell you to
get ready and you throw the apparatus
away or they take it off you and then they
count down on your fingers 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
and then you do your acting open your
eyes and go..
Sounds a bit much to me!
Oh it was! But it was very exciting and it
was shot brilliantly - the chase sequence
and then going up and into the water
- that was the coldest night of the year
when we did the exterior shot and I had
to be in a body bag which was horrible. It
was not a very nice experience and then
we did the underwater shots the following
week which was actually fantastic. I feel
so fortunate and the funny thing is of
course I had been on Coronation Street
as a social worker in the early 80s and I
never thought I’d be going back! I was
in and out of it for two or three weeks for
16
Some people cope with it really well like
my favourite person who plays Audrey,
Sue Nicholls, she’s brilliant and she’d
been an actress and had a career before
the Street. Funny e nough I worked with
her on Up the Elephant Round the Castle
with Jim Davidson before Coronation
Street. She’s a diamond, she’s terrific and
I’ve got a lot of time for Sue, she’s a very
good actress. She’s also really posh; her
dad was a Baron or a Lord! I remember
when she started in Crossroads, she
played a waitress, I’ve know her for years.
Trying to keep sane in those programmes
is tough - I don’t know how she does it.
Are they?
They are brilliant; those guys are such
everyday people. In fact, most of them
are alright and very warm and that’s a
northern thing which is lovely. EastEnders
is quite a cold place because everyone
lives in their own little spaces but they all
used gather in the green room because
that’s where the main studio doors
were but it’s not like that anymore. At
EastEnders now they’re all in their own
little rooms but being in the green room
is what used to make it lovely - even if
you didn’t particularly like somebody you
would admire them.
So was it hard to lose your reputation
as soap’s biggest villain or is it still
lurking?
Ah well that’s an interesting question I
think, partly because I’d been an actor
for 30 years beforehand and that helped
me to move on, it’s a double-edged
sword, without Richard Hillman I wouldn’t
have had the last 13 years of solid
work. Where it’s really helped me is that
people who go to the theatre they nearly
always like to see somebody they’ve
heard of or vaguely know about. That’s
where Richard Hillman came up trumps
particularly as he’d been seen by so many
people - even people who didn’t watch
Coronation Street normally - we had up
to 20 million viewers - you know you’re
reaching a very, very big audience so
that has led to me being in fair demand
for touring theatre shows. If I had a plan,
because I love the theatre, it was to get
known on television in order to put bums
on seats in a theatre. You can’t really have
a plan but that’s kind of how it worked out
for me…and actually it’s quite rewarding
financially as well as you are a profiled
person.
So I do quite comfortably out of it but
when I left Coronation Street it was
quite difficult to move on from a soap.
Sometimes people do spectacularly well
from it like Suranne Jones and Catherine
Kelly but they are quite rare and it can
be quite tricky. I was lucky in that I was
playing a character and when people
meet me they realise I’m not actually
Richard Hillman.
I have a wide range of skills I can use
though, I did Educating Rita about two
years ago and soon as you walk on the
stage you are in character and people
just forget all about Richard Hillman but
of course that’s why we are there in the
first place although obviously not the
only reason. I’ve never done panto and
didn’t want to be a panto/soap person so
I made the decision not to do anything
like that - I was very lucky I went to the
National Theatre I reinvested myself within
my business and played there in a play
called Harper Regan opposite Lesley
Sharp so that helped move me on a bit.
I had an enormous piece of luck that put
me into completely different part of the
business I was doing Where the Heart Is
for three years and that was nice that
moved me on from Coronation Street.
So aside from the theatre, soaps and
drama, you’ve done a bit of reality
TV as well, what was what your
experience on Strictly Come Dancing
like?
I had just done Guys and Dolls and
really I’d never watched Strictly - I didn’t
know anything about it and I thought it
was three months getting paid (in those
days everyone got the same money) so
I looked upon it as a bit of a holiday as I
could be at home and my dance partner
Karen Hardy came down here. Karen is
a very nice person but I think she was a
little over ambitious and enthusiastic with
me – I was the oldest in the show!
Were you?
Yes! I was older than Stephanie Beecham
and so you feel it’s slightly unfair when
you’ve got very young people taking part
but I suppose it doesn’t matter - it’s just a
reality show. It was very interesting from
the point of view of understanding how
reality television shows work and it was
very useful to learn first-hand how they