Interviews Connor Calland Interview by DJ Forrest

Connor Calland plays Jordan Price, cousin to Syd Spencer, whose dad Spence was the hard nut extremist, declaring war on the Indian community in Hollyoaks. Connor’s character is currently grooming Juliet in the County Line’s story. Before Hollyoaks, Connor also appeared Doctor Who episode Resolution, and voiced a character in Sins of Captain John, for Big Finish Torchwood. We caught up with Connor during a break in filming. 

Hi Connor thanks so much for the Interview. I’ve been catching up with Hollyoaks, and your character Jordan. I’m not sure I like him, but you can see how he comes across as a likeable person to some.  Did you have to research for your role?

Understanding how a drug dealer operates in quite the way he does. He doesn’t come across like the hard man Liam Donovan. Were you given much instruction on how to play him?

Connor: Not a character to like, so that's a good thing! A bit of research and had some guidance but some free reign as well!

Is Jordan a regular character or in just for a certain storyline?

Connor: The character I'm currently playing on Hollyoaks, Jordan Price, has come in as the bad guy in this year’s County Lines story line. Hopefully I'll be able to stay within the cast past the storyline!

Can you tell us more about your character (for those who maybe don't follow Hollyoaks?)

Connor: So, Jordan is a drug dealer whose come from a drug gang within a city centre and moved into the Hollyoaks Village. He uses his manipulation to make the younger and more vulnerable characters work for him. It's a relevant and intense storyline that hasn't been tackled by any soap!

As well as playing Jordan Price in Hollyoaks you have been filming two films and a television series, can you tell us anything about these roles? (The King's Man, Last Night in Soho and We Hunt Together)

Connor: Unfortunately, I can't say much about these productions (but a lot is to be found online if you search) But what I can say is, I have been given the most unbelievable experiences and opportunities to work alongside brilliantly established actors and up and coming emerging actors. I've also been able to work with incredible directors and efficient crew! The fact I've been able to work alongside these people has really reassured me that the career path I've chosen is a reachable one! And I'm consistently overwhelmed by the support that is shared online! Thank you all for being so kind!

Who or what inspired you to become an actor and what was your first big break?

Connor: I think when I started it was less from inspiration and more to build on my social skills, I was a quiet kid and my parents wanted me to socialise more, so I started at after school clubs etc. And instantly fell in love with acting, I've obviously found inspiration along my journey though! The first ever public play I did was an amateur show of Our Day Out, but my first professional job was a Torchwood Audio play!

How did the Torchwood audio role come about? Have you done more than The Sins of Captain John Hart?

Connor: Lucky for me I'm close friends with Scott Hancock who did a radio project with my year group whilst I was at RWCMD and I was able to keep in contact with him after I graduated and am able to call him a close friend! Fortunately for me I've also been involved with some other Big Finish Productions, The Sins of Captain John Hart, Torchwood Series 6 Volume 1 and also Doctor Who: Vanguard.

What was your role in the Sins of Captain John and what was it like working alongside James Marsters or were you in separate booths?

Connor: The role I played was quite a while ago now, but from what I remember it was a fun and dopey character to play! We all had our own booths whilst we worked but got to sit and drink tea and coffee together in the green room! James and the rest of the cast were such a delight and shared great and invaluable life lessons for me. Which at the time, I was just starting my professional career!

Had you heard of Torchwood or Doctor Who before you took on your roles?

Connor: Of course, I had! I was a big fan of Doctor Who during Christopher Eccleston’s time as he went to Pendleton College where I studied. And my favourite Doctor is of course, David Tennant!

Had you always wanted to be an actor, or had you been inspired in another role prior?

Connor: I tried different hobbies growing up, some more peculiar than others, from, Claymation, photography, zoology, writing etc. But it all eventually came back to acting one way or another.

Where did you train to become an actor? Did you start out in school plays or go to drama school/classes? Or learn in Uni?

Connor: I started out at after school clubs then I found an amateur dramatic club outside of school called "A Will And A Way" which is now known as "Stolen Thread Productions", I then studied performing arts at college BTEC level at Pendleton College which progressed me to move onto higher education in the form of Drama School, which was at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD). So, although I've only been doing professional work for just 2 years, it's been a long journey that I've been grinding away at.

What jobs did you take before you became an actor, or while you were working through auditions, to keep a roof over your head?

Connor: I've worked a few different jobs, mainly sports Retail, Manchester United, Nike, Adidas, Sports Direct, Call Centre Sales, Theatre Usher, promoter... Maybe some other jobs I've forgotten about?

When you're not acting, how do you relax?

Connor: What is relax? Whenever I get a spare minute, I'm usually in bed catching up on sleep or currently I'm attempting to stay healthy by going to the gym!

Have you ever worked behind the camera?

Connor: I've helped friends when they've experimented with film making a few times now. Boom, camera, polly board etc. Its good fun!

Now for some random questions, if you could only take 3 things with you on a desert island, what would they be and why?

Connor: I want to be the smarty pants who says a boat, water filtration system and endless tins of Spam...

If you ever had the opportunity to work with an A list actor/actress in a genre of your choice, who would it be and what kind of film? Unless you've already achieved this, who was it and in what film?

Connor: I think the person who’s solidified as a brilliant actor to me, especially after his last film, Joaquin Phoenix. His commitment to roles is utterly beautiful. I'd love to work with him in a Taika Waititi film.

Thank you, Connor for an awesome interview

Photos used in the cover art and throughout the Interview

were courtesy of BBC Doctor Who, Big Finish Torchwood, 

and Channel 4 Hollyoaks.

Headshot photo credit goes to Jess Revell

Who Reviews Resolution by Tony J Fyler

Tony approves of Junkyard Chic.

It’s a fan-based fallacy that you don’t really become the Doctor until you face off against the Daleks. Yes, the First Doctor faced them immediately, and if he hadn’t, the show is unlikely to have survived. Yes, the Second Doctor too faced them immediately, and the Fourth Doctor wandered about their creation myth in his first season. But Jon Pertwee didn’t meet them till his third season. Neither did Peter Davison, when he was en route to a Spectroxy fate staring at Nicola Bryant’s cleavage. Sylvester McCoy, like Pertwee, had a first season entirely Dalek-free – and his encounter with them at the start of his second season marked a radical re-think of the show’s tone, as well as his Doctor’s.

The thing about doing a full series of Who using no returning villains (or in McCoy’s case, just the one), is that it’s a gamble you have to nail. It can be a brilliant way to create new villains that people want to see again and again, as in Season 7 with both the Nestenes/Autons and the Silurians becoming firm favourites, and also delivering The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno into the bargain to drive the show’s new direction home to viewers. Or it can be Season 24.

The number of people clamouring for a return engagement with the Bannermen or the Tetraps probably speaks for itself there.

Resolution has the feel of Thirteen’s Remembrance of the Daleks – after a ropey first series in terms of villainy and Doctoral definition, it’s an attempt to bring the new Doctor into focus.

The initial voice-over exposition is tedious and plodding, but then it actually starts to settle to something – geeky couple discover odd thing, accidentally re-animate Dalek. High-quality mutant visuals, all to the good. Perhaps better than both is the treatment of the caseless Dalek trying to find its way to safety, and from there to subjugation of the planet Earth. The way it’s written is intelligent, and the combination performance from Charlotte Richie as Lin and Nicholas Briggs as the Dalek voice makes the pepperpots of terror scary again in a way they haven’t been for a while. What’s more, the Doctor’s actions in this story feel inherently Doctorish again, as they have on too few occasions in Series 11, especially when she declares ‘Me and a Dalek – it’s personal,’ and ‘I learned to think like a Dalek a long time ago.’

Where Resolution falters, it falters in pacing. The whole Dalek-trying-to-get-back-to-a-casing-and-kill-us-all thread is excellent, fast, adrenaline-driven stuff. Having the mopey father-son discussion cut and pasted into the middle of all that is like driving down the motorway at 80 miles per hour and suddenly slamming on the handbrake.

And the humour. Oh dear gods of ancient Skaro, the humour. The tired, torturous business with UNIT being suspended and replaced by a call centre – no. The who-the-hell-are-these-people, entirely under-introduced family who now have to have a conversation with each other – no.

The Junkyard Chic Dalek? Yes, pretty cool for a one-off, and it made sense within the arc of the story. It’s by no means a re-useable redesign of the Dalek of course, but if you think of it as the ‘Special Weapons Dalek’ of the story, it’s a rather fun addition to the army of on-screen Daleks.

And the Doctor. Ohhh the Doctor so very nearly works all the way through, only to be undermined by the script at the very end, when, having Done Something Clever, and Done Something Brave, Chris Chibnall can’t let the Doctor have her victory, but instead transfers it to Ryan’s dad in a schmaltzy ‘love conquers all, I’m still here for you son’ ending that presumably adds an extra layer of nose-tapping relevance to the ‘Resolution’ title.

Resolution overall is one potentially really good Dalek story cut-and-shunted with an episode of angsty British soap in a way that absolutely shows every cutting-point and shunt-shock and tries to sell itself to us on the basis that cut-and-shunts are a good thing. The pacing therefore has the front legs of a cheetah and the back legs of a duck, leading to a desperately uneven feel. But it’s a mark of the uneven nature of Series 11 that this still has the essence of a Remembrance of the Daleks moment – a subtle redefining of this Doctor’s character, honed in the fire of meeting her first Dalek, which, we can hope, will lead to bigger and better things in Series 12, once the training wheels have come off and the Thirteenth Doctor is allowed to encounter a more fundamentally dangerous universe.