Interviews Interview with Ian Reddington

Skype is a wonderful tool for interviews. It’s often the most awesome way of meeting people you would normally never get to see, except at conventions, if you’re really, really lucky. Although, and I have no idea how I managed to fail to even see Ian Reddington face to face across a computer screen, when my own face reflected back at me.

At least I remembered to remove the Post it Note covering the camera this time.

I really need to speak to the Captain about this alien software!

The interview began at 10am on Saturday 15^th February. I’d just finished breakfast and Ian was working his way through his which took the best part of the interview. I kept him talking!!! Sorry Ian!

My first knowledge of Ian was in Eastenders. I never saw the 80s episode of Doctor Who with Sylvester McCoy. I’ve only ever listened to the audio story and read the book. It was his portrayal of ‘Richard ‘Tricky Dicky’ Cole’ in Eastenders, the market inspector that was my first glimpse of him in action. Since then, I’ve seen him in the detective series ‘Vera’ and the old classic Coronation Street episodes on Freeview, as Vernon. I’ve yet to watch his most recent film roles on the streaming channels.

Hi Ian, thank you so much for the interview. Your theatre credits far outweigh your television and film credits, what is it about theatre that you love so much?

Ian: That’s why I’m poor. I’ve got too many theatre credits (laughs), that’s what I started out doing, I did it for years and years and years, and then the TV and the film really caught up afterwards, which is why it looks like an imbalance in that CV. But I’m still trying to get my bits of theatre in now. I love all those mediums equally. The theatre nourishes you more. There’s much more going on there and bizarrely for a medium that doesn’t last, the sort of memories of that are the ones that tend to last longer strangely enough. As a film there’s a bit of an irony there.

Was theatre your first break as an actor?

Ian: Theatre was everything I was doing. I did theatre for probably about fifteen years, I think. I did fifteen years with the theatre before I got a break on Eastenders. I got so many lucky breaks. I’d gone from RADA to the RSC to the Bristol Old Vic and then I just went out into Rep and I played great parts in Rep for about five or six years, maybe seven years. I was just on a bit of roll with doing theatre so, to be honest that’s all that was on my radar. Sounds strange but that kept me going for all those years.

You were in Corrie for three years playing Vernon, before that as Tricky Dicky in Eastenders which is where I first noticed you. I liked Cole, I felt sorry for him at the end. Do you still get recognised on the street for these characters after all these years?  

Ian: Listen, there isn’t a day that goes by where someone doesn’t stop me, it’s fabulous, for whatever reason, do you know what I mean. Don’t know why it’s going to be, generally, it’s going to be about a soap. But I was at some Awards Ceremony and a guy stopped me and he went, ‘you used to surf didn’t you, in Devon in Croyde?’ and I went, ‘yeah.’ So, I stopped and talked to the guy for about an hour, and I was so excited that he wasn’t anything to do with being on the TV or whatever. Yeah, I’ve got used to that now. Eastenders was 22 years ago, so I’ve had it for all those years for various reasons, so then it kind of looped backwards so people were going ‘of course, you were in Highlander’ and I got this whole thing about the Highlander film. The meagre work that I’ve done has tended to be in stuff that became quite culty and that itself gave a sort of following.

In 1989, you were voted Best Villain of the 25th anniversary season of Doctor Who Magazine, for your portrayal of the Chief Clown in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, do you have any memories of playing that role, and would you return to play a baddie in Doctor Who, the new series if you were asked?

Ian: Firstly, an actor will generally do any work he’s offered (laughs), we’ll clear that one out of the way now. Of course, I would. And a baddie would be great. It would be a great part. Yes, I still have memories and they keep going because of course that whole Doctor Who fan base just keeps things going, you know. I don’t do those big Conventions. I’ve done a few of those. I don’t want to spread myself too thinly but the few that I’ve done have been fantastic and so people have kept my memories going for them. It was a fabulous time. We were all young then. (laughs) Wimbledon were playing Liverpool in the FA Cup Final, they’re not my teams but I remember them distinctly. It was blazing hot and it was being in a hotel and having a laugh and filming this bizarre piece of TV.

So, was it filmed out on location somewhere? Or was it on a set somewhere, in a studio?

Ian: All those wonderful long shots of stuff, you know, all those dunes and heading down towards the circus they were all filmed down in gravel pits down in Dorset or wherever it was. So, we were on a holiday then basically for that. Some of the poor actors had their main scenes there. While us lot were having a good time in a hotel with the lovely TP McKenna who is no longer with us. And just having fun. And then we all trundle back to London and think, oh no we’ve actually got to do some work now in a studio and we’ll all get exposed. And then all the problems started happening with the BBC with the asbestos. They were closing down the studios. They closed down the studio we were in and we basically thought it was off. Got half the story in the can and the rest was off. So, we were kind of stood down. Then they came up with this ingenious idea of using the car park in Elstree, so it was big brownie points for whoever came up with that one. They put up the tent right there, bang outside the Eastenders studio where I ended up.

I end up parking my car where the tent used to be that I was filming in. So, I’ve got many happy memories. I was really excited that it turned out so well because there was nothing to the part. It’s got no lines hardly; about four or five lines. I was just making things up as I went along. Yeah worked out really well.

What's the best thing about playing a baddie in a series? Or a baddie, full stop!

Ian: You’ve got licence to go to more places I think because not all baddies are baddies on the surface. You’ve got a chance to start revealing little things in little ways or you can go absolutely mad and rant. I just feel the scope is what’s possible. It’s greater with those baddie characters. You can draw people in, make them think…you know, you slipped in there about ‘tricky Dicky’ that you ended up liking him. That’s the fascination with them because bad people tend to be more multi-faceted, I’m sure they don’t go through their lives being just bad. If that’s an essence of them, then what do they do with the rest of their time? They’re play acting. They’re giving us a pretence, so all those layers just become interesting to explore. 

Who were your earliest influences to becoming an actor?

Ian: I had absolutely no influences and no intentions of being an actor. I mean it just wasn’t on my radar. I came from a working-class family. My Mum was a dinner lady and my Dad was in the steel work and I mean it was ridiculous that I ended up doing what I was doing anyway. So, in terms of influences I honestly, there were none. I ended up doing it through Youth Social workers and youth workers in Sheffield. They encouraged a load of kids that would have been doing whatever otherwise to think about other ways of doing other things with their lives. We squatted in a big old education building. They found us a building and gave us the keys. Kids used to pile into this building and their social workers would be there and they would be chatting to you or whatever. They’d put a stage in a room and a piano in another room. We gradually became influenced by the other kids around us, by these people who weren’t teachers as such, they worked for the council really, in essence. I just started meeting people from backgrounds I’d never met, you know, first gay person, first black person, whatever way you want to put it. My mind was being blown. It became apparent to me that this world had a lot to offer. You didn’t know what you wanted to do as a kid, when you were leaving school so I just ran with it, so, we didn’t do drama back at school or anything, so I went back to school and I said, Can we do some stuff like this? OK, I said what about English Literature? We never did any English Literature, so I got the school to let a few of us stay behind like two nights a week and do English literature. It was so alien to me. So that’s how I ended up. Obviously, then once I’d got an interest, I started looking at theatre.

In Sheffield the Crucible had only recently been built and I started watching the actors there, I suppose, that was it.

The last time we spoke you were doing the western The Sisters Brothers (2018), you play the father. How did that go?

Ian: That was fabulous and ultimately disappointing. Well, I was playing Joaquin Phoenix’s John Sue Ryder’s father. They flew me out to Romania where I was filming in the Spanish Pyrenes. I did some fabulous scenes, none of which ended up in the film (laughs). I mean there was a tiny little bit but it was disappointing because it was a big break for me. It was an American part and I was working with those guys but that was a classic example of what happens as an actor, you never know. I was part of a backstory and the director didn’t go with the backstory. He hadn’t got room for this in the direction he was moving. Hey ho, that’s how it went. It was a film credit. It’s on the credits. They paid me. It’s on my credits.  

In all the roles you’ve played over the years, from theatre, to television and film, are there still roles out there that you would love to play, if given the opportunity?

Ian: Yes! I want to play Prospero in The Tempest. I’m older now. I’ve got children. I’ve got a daughter. So, maroon me on an island. Let me pontificate about my life (laughs), and chat to my daughter. It feels timely and right and I love the Shakespeare stuff that I’ve done. So yeah, maybe a strange choice but yeah. That has been on my mind recently, so yeah, that would be a part.

Do your children act as well?

Ian: My lad wants to act, so he’s down in London and he’s got this first little bit in a drama that he’s started filming so I have to say, yes, I mean it’s not something I openly encourage.

It’s a hard industry to get into though, isn’t it?

Ian: Yes, I just don’t know how you do it. It was different for me. When I started out, you know, the council paid for me to go to London. They shook my hand and said ‘Good Luck, follow your dream, go to London, here’s the money for you to pay for you to go to this fabulous drama school and here’s the money for you to look after yourself while you’re there.’

Can you imagine that happening now? Although there’s much more platforms for them to show their work there are infinitely more actors who want to fill those platforms. The quality has come down anyway because there’s so many. I spent 18 years nurturing these little things then I have to just say right, and have to send them out to strangers. It’s hard because I know too much about the industry, really. Maybe I should have encouraged them more, I don’t know. So, my lad wants to do that. I’m sure my youngest will want to do that and my eldest is just starting out and is probably going to start working with a filming company but not on the performing side. 

Do you ever watch yourself back on the TV or film or are very critical of yourself?

Ian: I suppose so. Once you’ve got over the amazement that it’s you, I still have that, that is actually me. I wanted to be a policeman but that’s me in that huge film, or whatever, so I’m not too harsh because I’ve done alright. You know, I’m quite pleased.

And then, well, you can’t be, it’s too late, at that point, it’s too late to be critical. All the work has gone into the rehearsal and the shooting and working on the floor, that’s where the analysis is, what can I do, it’s gone, it’s too late. The game’s finished and we’ve lost.

We’ve lost 4 – 0.

I can see to a degree which were better than others obviously. I do have that capacity.

You're a supporter of The Bobby Moore Fund, and patron of Ali's Dream and Brain Tumour Research, why do these charities mean so much to you?

Ian: It’s strange. I have not been touched by them, or my family so it’s not for personal reasons. The Brain Tumour Research people was a local thing, they set it up near where I live, they knew me and said, ‘Would you join us and would you be our patron?’ I said, of course I will, I’d love it. And in the ten years they’ve been going, that’s been fantastic, and so I’ve done the little that I can. I’ve tried to raise their profile.

John Bercow who is my favourite Tory, well he’s actually the only Tory I like (laughs), let’s put it that way, he was a patron as well, so he would invite us down to the House of Commons, he got MPs on board and involved and was fantastic.

The Bobby Moore Fund I was in Corrie. I met a load of high-profile people and they told me about this idea that they renovated schools that were kind of dilapidated so I ended up going to South Africa with them and helping building a school and that in itself was fabulous. No, I don’t have a direct contact but I love working with them.

When you're not busy on stage or on screen, how do you wind down, chill, relax?

Ian: I go to work to relax. It’s mayhem here. I’ve got a flock of sheep here I have to deal with. I’ve got building work to do. My life’s a bit mad so seriously work is a time when I can concentrate on a single thing and just try and zone out and work on that project.

I used to surf but my knees won’t allow me to do it anymore. (laughs). No, no please, let me work.

So, do you have a small holding?

Ian: Aye, a little small holding where we do our little thing.

What type of sheep have you got?

Ian: We’ve got our own breed now. We’ve got two lovely breeds. I’ve bred from Leicester Long Wools and a Welsh breed called Llanwenog. We’ve come up with our own kind of pedigree organic breed.

Leicester Long Wools

Where did the idea come from setting up a small holding?

Ian: My missus was a sheep farmer. She was a farmer’s daughter, though ridiculously I wound up driving a tractor. So, when I’m not acting, I’m driving a tractor or get on a mower.

What has been the toughest role to play in your career so far, on stage, screen or film?

Ian: They all have a degree of difficulty. I can’t say I’ve struggled with a role. The struggle and toughness in theatre is in different ways because it’s the performing of it, night after night that in itself has its own struggle. The bigger the role obviously the demand is harder. As you get older, you’re not as fit, so that becomes an issue sometimes.

It sounds a lot that I don’t have trouble with a role because you adapt. You build up a fitness for the demands of that role, before you go into it the amount of work, if you do enough work beforehand generally you can get by.  

Random question, on the basis of what you were talking about earlier about desert islands – if you were abandoned on a desert island what three creature comforts would you miss the most and if you were allowed to bring anything with you, what would you bring?

Ian: Funnily enough we were talking yesterday about what invention changed you the most such as a piece of tech and mine was the Walkman because for the first time you were mobile. You could walk around, obviously showing my age, you could walk around and you had a soundtrack for your life.   Maybe it’s a Walkman, I know I sound a bit daft as I’d have to find a load of old cassettes or whatever, but the ability of listening to music in a mobile way.

I would have said a microwave but that’s going to be a bit useless unless I’ve got some solar energy (laughs). I suppose they all say I’ll have the complete works of Shakespeare blah blah blah. Creature comforts – oh a duvet, I think. The first time I ever got money, the first big wage packet, I bought a duvet and I bought a season ticket for Sheffield Wednesday, but I bought a duvet.

So, I’ll have a Walkman, a duvet and a … creature comfort…you know I’m not worried about my hair, so I won’t need to worry about a comb or a brush or anything like (laughs) Oh I’ll have a pillow. A duvet a pillow and a Walkman (laughs)

Are you working on any new projects at the moment that you can tell us about?

Ian:  I’ve been in loads of filming at the moment and it’s all film. I’ve got two films that are on Amazon at the moment, one called Red Devil, one called Zoe and the Astronaut. I’ve got another film in the can called Original Gangster.

I work with a lot of independent film directors. I love that world. It’s a world I discovered so I’m in the middle of about three short films with three wonderful directors. Hopefully some theatre will come up but other than that I’m working very hard, and like I said, on my tractor at the moment (laughs)

Can you tell us anything about the Red Devil?

Ian: Red Devil is out now on Amazon. Crazy independent director called Mike Sabas who is a writer/director. Stephen Berkoff is in it. I’m in it. It’s a mad, crazy, drug fuelled romp. The other film out there Zoe and the Astronaut was the first feature film from an actor, actually. He wrote and made a feature film from literally any money at all, using students. He asked me to come on board, which I did. I loved the film. It inspired me and he inspired me so much that I went away and made my own documentary and made my first short film, all on the back of having done this kind of independent film with this actor.

It made me go out onto social media and there were thousands of people doing this that I hadn’t come across, for people working independently for no money, or crowd funding to get their projects out there. So, it’s been this new lease of life, it’s just a different page for me. I’m really enjoying it, so I made a documentary that was shown in Sheffield Documentary Film Festival which is really high profile.

I’m just finishing a short film I made, and I’m in post-production for a second film I’ve done. Listen, I don’t want to be a director, I don’t want to do all that, but I’m just experimenting and keeping myself being creative.

Thank you, Ian, for a most fantastic interview.

Main photos courtesy Ian Reddington

Richard Cole courtesy Eastenders BBC