On 20th September 1989 I was at the BBC Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham for my first day of two to film an interior scene of "Howard's Way". The exterior scenes were filmed on location on the South Coast.
In 1985 BBC One launched a new Sunday evening drama set on the South Coast of England "Howard's Way" ran for six seasons and was one of the biggest TV hits of the decade.
It was based around a yacht-building company set in the fictional town of Totton and starred Maurice Colbourne as Tom Howard, Jan Harvey as his wife Jan, with supporting roles from Glyn Owen as Jack Rolfe, Dulcie Gray as Kate Harvey, Nigel Davenport as Sir Edward Frere and Kate O'Mara as Laura Wilde.
My scene was filmed in Birmingham and the set was a room in a pub overlooking the sea and I was in a group of people singing the song "Sailing". It seemed strange sitting in the studio in the centre of England and it being so realistic that I was in a pub on the South Coast looking out at a sea view.
During one of the breaks in filming, I was sitting in the foyer outside the studio when an actor friend of mine, Arnold Peters, who played Jack Wooley in the radio series "The Archers" came into the room and was surprised to see me there. He asked me what I was involved with and when I told him it was on "Howard's Way" he asked where Maurice Colbourne was. I told him the he was still in the studio but then I asked Arnold what he was doing at Pebble Mill. He told me that Pebble Mill housed the sound studios where they recorded "The Archers".( I should have known!)
"Film Night" with Barry Norman was being filmed in an adjoining studio to the one where we were filming and celebrities from all walks of life were often on that programme. After Arnold had left the room I went to sit back in my seat but found that the England cricketer, Ian Botham was sitting in it. I was just about to tell him that he was sitting in my seat but, when I recognised who he was, I decided to find another seat.
On 20th September 1994, I was again in Bristol for my first day of three in an episode of " Casualty".
I had been told that I would be wearing a Father Christmas outfit for that episode which was being screened in December. I was taken to the wardrobe department but could not see a Father Christmas outfit. The wardrobe mistress then told me that I would be wearing a Christmas Tree fancy dress outfit. Initially, I was very surprised but then decided I could do my own comedy input by nodding my head on which I was wearing a headband with a star attached to a wire. As I nodded my head the star wobbled in all directions.
It made the other supporting artistes laugh when I went back to the Green Room but when I went on to the set, I kept nodding my head and when you genuinely make the crew laugh you know that it is really funny.
I was supposed to be a man who had gone to a Fancy Dress Party and had fallen over and became concussed. I acted like a drunk person for all the three days I was on that episode and when we were filming other scenes around the streets of Bristol, the public wondered whatever I was doing in that costume.
Over the following months when I was in subsequent episodes of " Casualty", I was always referred to "Here's the drunk Christmas Tree".
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