"EMMERDALE" and "MIDDLEMARCH"

On 4th August 2010, I arrived at the YTV studios in Leeds to take part in an episode of "Emmerdale".
The first episode of "Emmerdale" that I had been involved in was on 14th June 1993.
It all came about in the early 1990's when I was the M.C. for a charity Boxing Show held at the Grand Hotel in Leicester. Bill Maynard was the Guest of Honour and during the evening he said " Someone tells me that you are a Supporting Artiste, I'm filming a new series called Aidensfield, I play a rogue, I'm very good at that you know. If you ring Yorkshire TV they may give you one or two days work on the programme".
When I called the next day with the number Bill had given to me, I was told that I was speaking to the Department that only dealt with the booking of Principal Artistes and the programme was actually going to be called "Heartbeat" but they did ask me to send my CV which they would pass to the relevant section.
In July 1991, I received a call from them and was offered one days work on "Stay Lucky". I was delighted to accept and arrived in Leeds on 17th July to be taken to a Working Mens Club near Leeds which was being used as a set for that episode. I was part of the audience of a show being compered by Tony Peers, who I had met before at Butlin's Hotel in Saltdean in the 1960's when he was compering the Semi-Finals of the "Miss She" competition, which was held in those days, where my wife Barbara was one of the semi-finalists.
I cannot recall any of the story line but remember that it involved Dennis Waterman and Jan Francis.
It was another 2 years before I heard from the studios when I was offered my first day on "Emmerdale", the 14th June 1993. We were taken to Esholt, which is the village where the outside scenes were filmed at that time. The scene was outside the Woolpack and it was the introduction of the Windsor family, when Vic, Viv,
Scott and Donna walk down the street and have a word with Seth Armstrong ( played by the late, well respected, Stan Richards).
Since that first date in 1993, I have appeared in over100 episodes of "Emmerdale" as well as being in 9 episodes of "Heartbeat", in one of which I played the part of a Magistrate.

Also on 4th August 1993, two months after my first "Emmerdale", I was on location in Stamford for an episode of "Middlemarch" which involved Robert Hardy and Rufus Sewell.
The town was an ideal setting for that period drama but small alterations to building facades had to be made for authenticity. The scene involved a political speech being made by the Robert Hardy character and heckled by the Rufus Sewell character. I was in the scene as one of the onlookers at a point where an egg
was thrown and hit Robert Hardy. The Director was not happy with the shot and neither was Robert when asked to go and clean the egg off his clothes and return for a second "take". The second take was more realistic and the production team were finally happy with the scene.

Tomorrow I will recall the 5th August1999, the 7th and final day when I was involved with "Dangerfield"
between 1994 and 1999 where I played a Security Guard for an M.P. being played by Nigel Havers.