Features
Soap legend
Ian Reddington is famous for starring in two top TV
soaps. He talks to Viv Hardwick about returning to
Jack And The Beanstalk as the big box office draw.
DRESSED up in the
finery of pantomime
villain Fleshcreep,
there's just one
question on the lips of
actor Ian Reddington:
"Which other actors have become
central characters in top soaps
Coronation Street and EastEnders?"
He's arrived a week late for the
launch of Darlington Civic
Theatre's Christmas treat, Jack And
The Beanstalk, due to the hectic
filming schedule for his final scenes
as rocker Vernon Tomlin in
Coronation Street - Reddington's
contract ends in September.
The 50-year-old says he's enjoying
all the attention as the headline star,
even when I manage to tread on one
of the lengthy ends of his tailcoat
which trails magnificently across
the floor as he enters from the
dressing room.
"Don't worry," he jokes, "I've been
an actor for 30 years and never
dropped a sequin."
He reveals that his first ever
pantomime was Jack And The
Beanstalk at Newcastle's Theatre
Royal which came in 1994 at the
height of his fame as Richard
Tricky Dicky' Cole, the market
inspector in EastEnders.
"I'd just left EastEnders and it
was a big show with Little and
Large. Actually, I've only done four
pantomimes, having bragged about
how long I've been an actor, and
three of those have been Jack And
The Beanstalk. I did it once as a
kind of spider, but Fleshcreep is a
great name and hopefully it does
what it says on the tin."
On his delayed press call he says:
"What happens with Corrie is that
it's programmed for 100 per cent of
the people to be there 100 per cent of
the time and, in life, that doesn't
always work. You only need one
little cog out of place and
everything has to change," he says,
explaining that some scenes were
dropped or changed.
"I'll ring in today just to make
sure everything is there for
tomorrow," Reddington adds.
Asked about his departure he
gives me a "nice try" for the way I
phrase the question and replies:
"Quite obviously I can't give much
away. Where are we in transmission:
I've come back from my latest cruise
with the band and all is not well at
the Rovers."
Hasn't his screen wife Liz
(Beverley Callard) become odds-on
for adultery with bookie Harry (Jack
Ellis)?
"Are you telling me that? I know
the odds are not in my favour so
they tell me on the streets.
Whenever I walk round, believe me
if something is happening they let
me know. Listen, because we film six
weeks ahead I'm getting things like
you wanna watch that bookie' and I
think ah right, so we're at the point
where the bookie is poking his nose
in'," he jokes. Reddington says it was
his own idea to end his lucrative
contract and adds: "Characters can
only go so far sometimes and I was
there as Liz's love interest. We're
splitting up and I'm not saying it's
permanent, but for the moment they
split up. And I don't want to be a
peripheral character in The Street.
I've been right there in the centre, in
the middle, at The Rovers, the most
famous pub in the world, and in a
way you can't top that. So that's not
a bad exit."
On his final scenes he says: "I
don't think I'm going to be run over
or a barrel is going to fall on me and
crush me in the cellar. I think I'll be
alive in more sense than one. Tricky
Dicky is still alive, maybe the two of
them will meet up in the great soap
triangle."
As for his starring roles in the
UK's top two soaps he muses: "I'm
trying to find out who else has done
that created a major character in
both soaps. That's a curse or
something that's unique."
One of the few to achieve
anything similar is Gateshead's Jill
Halfpenny, who played a smaller
character, nurse Rebecca, in The
Street in 2000 before her explosive
scenes in Eastenders as police
officer turned nail bar owner Kate
Tyler a few years later.
On his own experiences about
switching from the world of
classical acting, musicals and TV
drama to soaps, Reddington
responds: "You can never plan a
career. This business is about
timing. You can say this is what I'm
doing for the next five years' but I
may never have taken either of
those jobs had they come a week
earlier or later. I never thought I'd
be repeating with the two soaps
because they are entirely different
beasts, but also I was making a move
to be known more as a Northern
actor. There is now a lot of work
coming out of the North. We are not
so obsessed with London any more.
In a way it was a career move
playing to my Sheffield roots."
His next project is a London run of
The Lemon Princess which began
life at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
in Leeds three years ago and
features the tragic storyline of a
family coping with their eldest
daughter developing CJD and taking
part in the government inquiry into
the "mad cow" food crisis.
"It got some of the best reviews of
my life and we always thought we'd
get it transferred to London but
then Corrie came along. Now a lot of
my energy is going into that," he
says.
And his verdict on the two soaps,
having appeared on both? "One's
funny and one's not, he says talking
himself out of job in EastEnders.
Corrie has survived through it's
humour and Eastenders uses drama
and gritty realism. Thank God, I've
got a funny part in Corrie," he says.
* Jack And The Beanstalk runs at
Darlington Civic Theatre from
December 6-January 18. Box Office:
01325-486555
10:37am Thursday 19th June 2008
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
