After a fairly successful run with Durrington Theatrical Society (Aladdin by Christopher Lillicrap, and Din-Dins by Derek Hoddinot) I was enlisted by a group of close and trusted friends to play what is ostensibly my first straight screen role, that of Detective Superintendent David Wilson in Chris Kirk's A Mind of Winter.
This was a very challenging role as I was only 21 at the time and I had to act early to mid-thirties as a hard nosed detective who will stop at nothing to solve the murder of a local cab driver. The true nature of his character does not become clear until towards the end as it is revealed that he committed the murder and has been trying to pin it on a disgruntled unemployed guy who lives in the same village.
So far, so Midsomer Murders. Or so you would think.
Unfortunately, what I thought at the time was a great twist was slightly hampered by the fact that they tried to put a supernatural twist on the nature of Wilson's character. According to some plot elements and exposition, my character died ten years previous to the events in the film in an accident involving a taxi driver. Is it the same driver? Never explained. Is my character a ghost? Possibly with some of the weird things that seem to happen.
Although uniformly superbly acted by everyone involved (Derry Everett gets a special mention for the key scene where she begins to suspect Wilson and she confronts him, leading to a bit of a barnstormer. I put her through hell on that scene and I'm very proud of the work we did that day.) the film suffered from a loss of plot cohesion as the bodies started piling up, sometimes for plausible reasons, others just so that Chris could experiment with his special effects kit and have tons of blood and brains splattered all over his car windscreen. At least, that's how it feels in hindsight. At the time, it was hilarious.
It also led me into my first proper relationship thanks to a drunken night at my friend Mark's birthday party a few months before shooting started. The best thing to come out of that time, which lasted far longer than it should have, were my two older children. Bye bye drama school and a potential acting career, hello doing acting in my spare time with my mates between nappy changes.
Still, we all have to make sacrifices; we must suffer for our art.
After a number of other projects in those early days, Chris and I had a falling out and Mark struck out on his own in order to take his creativity away from any negative influence, which resulted in a few more collaborations together, details of which will follow in future posts. Chris and I have since got back in touch years later, water very much under the bridge, and he has been collaborating with Mark to get all of our old projects on YouTube. Hopefully they'll actually be working soon!
Next time: my time with the Arundel Festival!
