Straight.....or Bent? The Real Me.

Straight or Bent ? - The Real Me

In the sort of coincidence that can sometimes render one slightly frustrated, most of the television work that I've done this year, is now being shown on television simultaneously.

Hence if you’re particularly devoted to a little touch of Clayton in your night,  you have been able to catch me early evening on Thursday in the Channel 4 soap “Hollyoaks” or later on BBC 3 in the remarkably good “HIm and Her”, the channel's highest rating sitcom.

Graham watches Paul sign the register at the wedding from Hell - Him and Her

There may be some avid devotees, having watched both, who think this has proved an admirable opportunity for me to show my range. In  “Him and Her” I play Graham, a sensitive and softly spoken counsellor who's been having an affair with Paul, the aggressive and slightly simple boyfriend of Laura. Through Paul’s relationship with Graham we manage to see a new side of him.

In Uniform - Hollyoaks

In my other role as Superintendent Marlow of the Deeside police in “Hollyoaks”, Paul is just the sort of person I might find myself arresting. Except that at the moment I don’t seem to be arresting anyone, just working in cahoots with several of the major criminal figures in Hollyoaks. Actually this week I did throw somebody against a car. Not as you might expect in frustration at their behaviour while queueing at a retail outlet, although believe me I've been within inches of that doing my Christmas shopping, but actually filming new scenes that will be seen early next year.

So bent copper, gay counsellor -  extending the casting envelope, I hear you cry! Well I’m not sure about that, but I'd like to think that both portrayals are equally believable and in tune with my later life philosophy of “when on camera do as little as possible”.

There have been times in my professional past, and some may say in my personal life too,  when in the acting stakes, I have followed the John Lewis philosophy of “never knowingly undersold!”  I always used to believe that if one was acting, people should be aware of it. After all, at times, it can be hard work, so people should know that it’s going on.

But the older you get the more you realise that in acting,like in so many things in life, less is more. Not in everything you understand. Size does matter.  but paring things down to essentials can bring so many benefits.

It’s part of how I work  with people in their presentation technique. Getting them to acknowledge what they intrinsically do well, and giving them some techniques to enable them to do it in situations of stress. When the spotlight is on them. Not to put on a presentation manner, but to be true and pared down to what they really are.

I do three things well. Posh. Northern, and Posh Northern. The delightful Brian Jordan says that I have it down to two. Stern and Camp. He may well be right.  I'd like to think I offer a wider palette of performance, but who knows.

The basic thing is that having limited the choices available, I seem to get more work. People need to know where to place you. Your agent needs to know how to sell you. Directors like you to give them a choice that you have made when you audition. Whereas when a younger actor, I used to go into an audition room with the attitude of “I’m an actor, I can do anything. What would you like me to be?”, now I can walk into the room saying “This is what I am. Which variation of it would you like?”

The best thing we all have as actors is ourselves. A unique mix of emotions and experiences entirely individual and unreplicated.  Our very own USP, or unique selling point to be particularly corporate and bland. That collarbone breaking break in Bridlington at the age of five is part of what made me, as are so many other experiences both terrible and terrific.

As an actor,  these experiences are my work of reference, and in pursuing work, one should always try and let the real “me” come through.

I hope that both Graham and Superintendent Marlow are pleasing the viewers of their respective programs, but I also hope that they are me. A particular facet of me on display surely, but me.

I recently went up for a job where the character description was “posh with too many chins”. 

Now is that Posh…… or Posh Northern?