I think he thought
he was going to turn
up on the Antiques
Roadshow one day with
one of these things that
turned out to be worth
a fortune… which he
never did.
Jason: As a young actor getting out
there did you get star struck by anybody?
Dan:
I think I did a play directed by
Judi Dench and I think she’d just been
made a Dame. It was a musical in Regents
Park in the Open Air Theatre and at that
time she was the most super famous
person I’d met and she is just gorgeous.
I subsequently worked with her on As
Time Goes By. They had originally axed
the show but about five years later they
decided to bring it back, I think because
it’s very, very big in America so I think the
Americans pumped in a load of money to
make what they called the Union Specials.
The guy who had been playing a regular
character in it moved on to other things. I
think he was in soap somewhere and they
wouldn’t release him to do it. So, I was
the sort of Bobby Ewing out of the shower
different person, different actor playing
the part of the character that was already
established. But, we did two 45 minute
episodes and the cast all get together and
have lunch every Christmas and I’m lucky
enough that they still invite me. So, I am
regarded as part of the cast.
Jason: That’s fantastic. Did you have any
role model actors that you looked up to?
Dan:
Well, David Morrissey weirdly
was a role model and he’s since become
a mate. He was in a thing when I was
growing up called One Summer, a drama
on ITV and that was set outside of
Liverpool with young, Liverpool kids and
I think that was where I first realised that
I might be able to get in the business. I
was totally awestruck by this programme.
The acting was brilliant, it was a fantastic
script. I was a big fan of his and then met
him quite soon after becoming an actor
actually and he’s been a mate for years
now. So, I refuse to call him a role model
really because you can’t have mates who
are role models.
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