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Stainforthonline Interview

Adge Covell - Adrian Bowers (Paul / Faith)

Adge: I'm with Adrian Bowers

Adrian: That's right

Adge: Would you mind telling me what your date of birth is please?

Adrian: Twentieth of the eighth nineteen seventy

Adge: Hey, that's my birthday, the twentieth of August!

Adrian Is it?

Adge: Nineteen Fifty seven

Adrian: Is it your birthday?

Adge: I'm a Leo, yeah.

Adrian: Put it there! (Laughs)

Adge: Right then, you were born in Chester?

Adrian: Yeah

Adge: Can you tell me why you decided to be an actor?

Adrian: I dunno. I think it was just something that always appealed to me really. When I was at school, I used to enjoy reading. We started getting up and doing plays at school and that, and I just realised that I really enjoyed it. When you realise something like that…., I liked the fantasy side of it, the escapist sort of thing.

Adge: Is that the sort of stuff you read, escapism and fantasy?

Adrian: No…., I have done. I read all sorts now. I just read whatever.

Adge: No favourite authors then?

Adrian: Erm…., favourite authors…. Yes. Well, at the moment, I've been reading Philip Pullman's books.

Adge: Any particular genre? Sci-fi?

Adrian: No…, I didn't really read that much science fiction. I'm sure I did when I was younger, but I can't sort of remember it.

Adge: I looked for you on the internet and found you'd had several other jobs before becoming an actor.

Adrian: Yeah…, I worked, delivering ice cream.

Adge: Yeah, I saw that one

Adrian: I worked at British Aerospace for a bit. I worked in a laundry, for two days. (Laughs) I could only stick it for two days.

Adge: That bad?

Adrian: It was REALLY BAD, and I hated it. I did all sorts of jobs, bar work…., whatever…., car valeting, which was all right. I quite liked driving jobs at the time.

(Jamie Draven enters the trailer, and then stands leaning on door jamb, looking out)

Adge: When you got into "Teachers", and comedy, what was it that turned you towards comedy?

Adrian: Ehm.., I suppose I've always done both sides of it. I dunno. It's just, that's the way it was cast, and I think the scripts were very good on that, and it was fun to do. We had a laugh doing it.

Adge: It got quite a cult following didn't it?

Adrian: Yeah, yeah it did. I was a fun job.

Adge: Who would you say influenced you, as far acting is concerned?

Jamie: Jamie Draven

Adrian: Yeah, Jamie Draven. (Laughs) Yeah, a big influence.

Adge: Yeah right (Laughs)

Adrian: Well, I mean…., there's so many to name. I saw Phil Daniels at the RSC when I was at sixth form college. I thought, well, if he can be at the RSC, then fuck it, you know. I think actors like him and Gary Oldman, you know, British actors, Ray Winston and all those guys, they're the guys who we looked up to. With regards to American actors, well there're loads of them, Brando, Steve McQueen, and all those. And of course there's De Niro.

Adge: You all say De Niro .

Adrian: All actors say De Niro (Laughs)

Adge: Can you tell me a bit about Paul and Faith?

Adrian: Yeah. Well Paul is a local bobby. He's best mates with Gary, who is Jamie's character, and we're both married to sisters. Basically, once the strike starts Paul started to get further and further away from his community. They start by policing the other areas, and he falls in with the Met boys, 'cos he's put in as the liaison officer, and his head gets turned a little bit. He's just hanging out with them and drinking with them…, and throughout the piece he becomes more sort of…, sort of brutalised by it I suppose. He's confused…, and it rips apart their friendships and their relationships. His character becomes darker through the piece, and…., 'till at the end, he's really sort of lost it, and he's not the character we first meet. Like everyone, he's scarred, but a lot of what he does he brings on himself, I think. But, you know, I mean, it's one of those things, you sort of…, the character like……., you've got to find the sympathy for the character if you're playing him. I don't think he's a bad man, essentially. He just gets pulled, and he's sort of weak, and he allows himself to sort of get pulled away, in that respect. I think. He's earning all the money, going out on the lash, and for the first time in his life he feels important.

Adge: Are you enjoying playing this part?

Adrian: Yeah…., yeah. I have played a couple of coppers before (Laughs)

Adge: Yeah, I was just going to ask you about that. You played a constable in Supply and Demand.

Adrian: Oh yeah…, I only had one line in that.

Adge: You were Detective Constable Jim Cassidy in Badger

Adrian: Yeah, yeah.., that was all right. When we did the driving shots it was fun. (Laughs)

Adge: You're not worried about being typecast as cop are you?

Adrian: No. The problem is, when you're tall… that's the kind of part that comes flying your way! So, no, definitely not. I think I'm more worried that I'll get typecast as a PE teacher. (Laughs)

Adge: Ah yeah! What about mining connections. Have you ever had anything to do miners or the mines before this?

Adrian: Well, I'm from Chester, so the nearest colliery to Chester was Gresford colliery, which had big disaster happen at that site.*
In that respect, no. I did Brassed Off, we did a play at the National Theatre, so, we looked into it quite a lot then. We went up to Grimethorpe and around there. So that's about all…., my family, all my granddads, were members of the Labour Party, and were very active in the Labour Party, so I was brought up with an understanding of everything that was going on.

*(Adrian was referring to a disaster which occurred in 1934, and in which 265 men and boys died. This was the worst of the mining disasters in North Wales)

Adge: So, you're from a Socialist background?

Adrian: Yeah, that's right, a Socialist background.

Adge: I found a story that you were once flooded out from where you were living in Chester.

Adrian Did you?!!

Adge: Must have been a bad experience?

Adrian: It wasn't in Chester, it was in London.

Adge: London?

Adrian: Yeah, we got flooded out in London. It was…, yeah, pretty horrific.

Adge: I'd gathered that from what I read about it.

Adrian: Yeah. Well it is. It's just horrific when you come back and you find everything floating around in your house. (Laughs) What do you do? So, er, I've got over it now. It's just one of those things, and it makes you realise when you see it on the telly, just how unfunny that is. When you see people sort of sloshing around in their house, well, my heart just goes out to them. There's worse things that can happen, obviously, but it's just one of those things where you go, "Blimey!"

Adge: Have you got a Fred Perry on?

Adrian: Have I got Fred Perry on? Not today. (Laughs) I do wear them!

Adge: Do you? (Laughs)

Adrian: I've worn them for years. I used to be a mod when I was younger.

Adge: Oh yeah? I remember Oxford Bags and all that from '72

Adrian: Yeah, I used to wear that stuff…, and checked trousers. (Laughs)

Adge: What are your future plans, what are likely to be doing next?

Adrian: I don't know what I'm doing next, but hopefully it'll be something as interesting as this has been, but these projects are few and far between. This has been…, well, the best job I've done really.

Adge: What would you say has been your best work?

Adrian: I tend to do theatre. I mean I get more satisfaction from doing theatre.

Adge: You like doing "live"

Adrian: Yeah, I mean, Teachers was a lot of fun, and the response was very good.

Adge: When you say theatre, do mean classical?

Adrian: All classical and stuff like that.

Adge: Have you ever worked with David before?

Adrian: No

Adge: So, this is your first time with David Thacker then?

Adrian: Yeah

Adge: I understand he's highly respected in the RSC?

Adrian: Yeah, yeah, and you can see why can't you, after what he's done here. He's been very inspirational to us anyway, and to see him getting everyone to be a part of this has been amazing. And I think, to be honest, there aren't many other directors who would have been able to go about it in the way he has done.

Adge: Well Adrian, thanks very much for talking to me, and it's been really nice to meet you.

Adrian: OK mate, thanks.

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