Theatre and Dance Previews

He was THE face of Grange Hill who, as Tucker Jenkins, stole the hearts of all 11-year-old girls between 1978 and 1982. The popularity of this character led to spin off series "Tucker's Luck" before Todd Carty won the role of Mark Fowler in EastEnders, sensitively portraying the challenges that faced an HIV positive man for 12 years. And if he didn't already have enough to deal with - his mum was Pauline Fowler!

Todd Carty in The Business of Murder

The character eventually succumbed to the illness, but just four weeks later Todd re-appeared on our TV screens in a role that couldn't have been more different to the nice fruit and veg man. As PC Gabriel Kent in The Bill he lied, murdered and raped his way through the series for over two years before jumping off a block of flats!

Todd's come a long way from his first role in a Woolworth's advert and with three massive and memorable roles under his belt, he is currently in a theatre tour of Richard Harris's psychological thriller The Business of Murder, as well as turning his attention to working behind the camera!

He told us about his career so far, his latest role and what he hopes the future holds.

Tell us a bit about the Business of Murder?

Todd: It's a murder mystery whodunnit, with a twist and turn at every moment. I play a hard nosed copper and there's a kind of weirdo psycho guy in it and a lady, so it's a three-hander with twists and turns right up to the end basically.

You're playing a copper - what's he like?!

Todd:: He's like a seventies style Sweeney copper really, old school who wouldn't think twice about messing someone around to get a confession out of them, not like the PC coppers of today.

Todd as Mark Fowler in EastEnders

Would you say he's different from the other policeman that you've played?

Todd: I suppose if the other policeman Gabriel Kent was there they'd cave in within 30 seconds. I suppose he's got a bit more time for people than Gabriel Kent but at the same time he likes decisions and he likes them quick.

Murder mysteries are hugely popular with audiences, what is it about them do you think that people love so much?

Todd: I think there's a secret detective in all of us, particularly in the British public. Right from the Agatha Christie days, we just love to work things out for ourselves. You're sitting round a telly and families will decide who they think has done it and what's going on, I think it's the detective in us all, the amateur sleuth in us all.

There must be difficulties in murder mysteries if you forget words which are an important part of the plot?

Todd: Yes, that's absolutely right, it's so plot driven. In something else if there's like 12 or 13 people in a play, maybe somebody else can come in and say it, but actors can be quite canny and quite loyal and can look after each other so if you don't notice, we've got away with it! But I must admit that the concentration levels have to be 100 per cent, to not only give the cue but to also give the clue too!

You've made your name in some huge TV shows, what's the transition to working on the stage like?!

Todd: There's an audience! Any actor or performer will say that there's nothing quite like the buzz of having people sitting just three feet away from you as opposed to just being surrounded by crew and television cameras and lights and all that kind of thing. You're out on your own basically.

You started very young in acting - did you have a chance to train or have you learnt on the job as you've gone along?

Todd: It was a bit of both really. I started at the age of four and went to a Saturday morning acting club which had an agency attached to it and by the time I started stage school I was about 11 so it was a little bit of both. I learnt on the job and then got some extra training when I went to school. I suppose the best training is on the shop floor so to speak, but you do need a little back up from proper training like the dos and don'ts and the wheres and whys.

Todd as Tucker Jenkins in Grange Hill, 1978

And stage acting is different from TV techniques as well?

Todd: Yes - you've got an audience about three feet from you but you can't speak really quietly because they won't hear you at the back. So it's slightly different but in both strands you've got to tell a story and get a message across.

Were you spotted at your acting classes for Grange Hill?

Todd: No, I was full time at stage school then and the agency just put you forward for things. They were doing this new series called Grange Hill about a comprehensive school which was going to last nine episodes, no longer. About 500 kids went down and I think I wanted to get away early so I jumped the queue! The producer spotted it and sent me to the back of the queue so I had to wait for another two hours! Little did I know that in episode three of Grange Hill, Tucker Jenkins jumped the queue so there must have been something in what I did, as well as how I read for the part, that eventually saw me in the role of Tucker.

And that role really became legendary didn't it, he's almost iconic in that school days era?

Todd: Well, who would have thought I'd still be talking about something that started 30 years ago and is still going? Yes - it turned everything around for me in my life, I was a child jobbing actor until then, then this part called Tucker Jenkins came along and it just completely turned everything on its head for me.

Of course you went on to do the spin-off Tucker's Luck. I have to ask, if they wanted to do a series now about Tucker, would you go for it?

Todd: I think I would! Just before Christmas I went back to Grange Hill as Uncle Tucker for a one-off special episode so it would be interesting to see what Tucker is up to! From what I hear from Phil Redmond, he failed his exams and was a labourer on a building site and was shacking up with Tricia Yates so there was a future after all!

With Tricia Yates in Grange Hill, 1978

It's wonderful that the writer has this afterlife for the actors as well?

Todd: I think he's always got it in his head! For Phil that's more or less where he started out as well, that's what changed things around for him too.

A series with Tucker and Tricia has to happen - I will start a campaign!

Todd: Please do, it's got to happen hasn't it?!

You're on tour at the moment which is demanding but what's more difficult, that or the mechanics of being in a soap or serial drama?

Todd: Well one you do by night, you do one show a day and you're away from home which isn't very nice obviously, and a soap is 12 hours a day, six days a week, so either way they're both quite gruelling schedules but in one you get a chance to do it again and in the other you have to get up there and perform to an audience. So they all have their ups and downs but in theatre, if you haven't got a matinee you get the day off and you can go and watch a film! On soaps you're there all the time and on call all the time and, you don't have an understudy in soaps. In The Bill or EastEnders another actor can't come along and say I'll play you today Todd! 

What's the most common or predictable question you get asked about being in EastEnders or The Bill?

Todd: Well it depends! If they're feeling peckish they usually say 'how are your melons?' And when I was in the Bill they used to say 'morning murderer'!

It's a generational thing. I was in a hotel yesterday and a fellow shouted out 'can I get you another beer Tucker'?! Really it's an age thing. I was in EastEnders for 12 years, Grange Hill for about 7 or 8 and The Bill for about three so I think it depends what they are thinking of at the time - you can never predict!

Do you look back on those shows fondly?

Todd: Oh God yes, absolutely, in particular Grange Hill because I was 13 years old, I had no mortgage, no bills and no ex-wives to pay off so I didn't have a care in the world! I just had to turn up and play a cheeky little chappy! But with all of them, you go through different periods in your life and you remember them for that particular section in your life. I loved doing Grange Hill, I loved the family feel up at EastEnders and loved playing an evil murderer in The Bill. They all had their own positives really.

Add those years up and it's quite a long time - you don't seem to be that old?!

Todd: I think I'm quite young! I've just packed a lot in to my 21 years!

Is there a role you've always wanted to play?

Todd: I've always like motorbikes so I've always wanted to do a British version of Easy Rider - just a couple of middle-aged guys with middle-aged spread going across a plain somewhere on their motorbikes with a little bit of a story thrown in.

Tucker came back in Tucker's Luck, 1982

Is theatre something that you want to do a lot more of or are you looking to do more TV or do you want to do a mixture?

Todd: I like doing a mixture. And the third hat I'm wearing at the moment is a director's hat. I directed three episodes of 'Doctors' for the BBC last year and I did some second unit directing on a children's film last summer called 'A School That Roared' and I'm in talks to do my first children's feature film in the summer for the British Youth Film Academy. So it's a mixed bag and I suppose at my age or stage in life you try and recognise good opportunities when they come along and hopefully you're wise enough to take them on board if they're good.

I've got the bug for it, the taste for it and if more directing stuff comes along then I'll do it. I'd love to go back and do some more on Doctors, but I'd also like to get this feature film under my belt. Working with young people just reminds me of myself 30 years ago. The enthusiasm of them all just makes you think you could do it almost for nothing just for the enthusiasm alone.

I bet they really look up to you?

Todd: They're great kids and they really learn fast. They learn behind the camera and how to use it and hold the boom. They are between the ages of 13 and 17 and they are learning an awful lot in their summer holiday - they're giving their time up, but they get to make a movie!

Have you learned directing purely from being in the business, has it just come naturally?

Todd: I've had absolutely no training at all! It's come purely from being on the other side of the camera watching, listening, learning and observing. The thing with directing is that you're surrounded by fantastic crews and technicians so you don't have to know every single iris. I've just learnt on the shop floor but boy oh boy it's hard work because you've got to look after everyone - but I absolutely love it!

So you just have to know what you want to see and then hopefully everybody else will help out!

Todd: You've got it - I couldn't have summed it up better myself!