Emmerdale star to appear at Theatre Royal Windsor

Every actor has his own way of passing the time while waiting to go on stage. But Fraser Hines'  way is slightly more physical than most, writes Francis Batt.

The veteran television star - whose career has ranged from being Doctor Who's assistant to running the farm in Emmerdale - works out while he waits to go on.

He is currently appearing in the classic farce See How They Run, coming to Windsor's Theatre Royal next week as part of its countrywide tour. 

Fraser said: "I play the police sergeant who rounds the whole thing off and don't come on until near the end. But I still have to be at the theatre at 7. So while I' m waiting I do a work out with the theatre weights, have a shower, a cup of tea, then I'm ready to go on."

Fraser is among the celebrities who play for the Lord's Taverners charity cricket club. So he is used to keeping fit - even if it did once cause a problem when he was making the film thriller Zeppelin.

He said: "I got whacked in the eye with a cricket ball at the weekend and turned up on the set sporting a black eye. The director came up with the idea of bringing forward the filming of a scene after I was supposed to have had a fight with Michael. They did not need to bother with the make-up."

Fraser is a Yorkshireman, whose career started  in in earnest aged seven - thanks to his mother and a rough piece of sacking.

He said: "My stage school in Yorkshire wanted me to play Maurice Chevalier and my mother made me a white suit. There wasn't much money and she used white sacking.
"It itched and I couldn't bend my knees. As a result everyone commented on the brilliant way I had captured the stiff legged Chevalier walk."

It led to the chance to attend the famed Corona Stage School and soon Fraser was appearing alongside fellow alumni Richard O'Sullivan, Francesca Annis, Susan George and Dennis Waterman in films made by the Children's Film Foundation for showing in Saturday morning matinees at cinemas.

A good role as a boy called Jan in the wartime children's television drama The Silver Sword and a stint as a dying young man who fought his way back in the medical soap Emergency Ward 10 followed. Then Doctor Who.

Fraser said: "I was only supposed to be in six episodes playing Jamie. My mother was Scottish so I found it easy to play a highlander when Doctor Who lands his Tardis there. But they started getting mail asking for me to stay on. So I travelled on the Tardis for three years.
"I loved doing that, the happiest three years of my life. I watch it now at the theatre before the show starts."

Fraser had a brief spell in movies, appearing with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif in A Last Valley and Zeppelin with Michael York. He found superstars Caine and Sharif to be among the nicest, most easily approachable actors he has ever worked with.

Getting the part of Joe Sugden in Emmerdale Farm came about when he was going out with actress Liza Goddard. He said: "Her father was about to start directing this new soap opera on the farm. He commented he had not found anyone to play the son Joe and Liza piped up  'Jamie is a Yorkshireman. If you don't cast him I'll never speak to you again'. Her mum agreed and I got the part.

"I survived the famous Emmerdale purge when a plane dropped on the village and the Post Office siege. In the end they killed me in a car crash in Spain. By then I was ready to leave and do some theatre."

Recently Fraser has been the face of the police on stage twice, as an inspector in two Agatha Christie productions The Hollow and The Uninvited Guest. But he said: "I have been demoted to Sergeant in See How They Run."

This famous wartime show features an escaped prisoner of war, a vicar with a saucy wife, an easily shocked spinster and every venerable cliche of British farce. It is also extremely funny.

Fraser said: "It is full of jokes and references wartime audiences must have loved. But it works today because of the pace and skill with which it is constructed."

Co-starring are Dale Meeks - another Emmerdale veteran, Guy Siner from 'Allo 'Allo and Windsor 'sregular panto dame Michael Sharvell-Martin.

See How They Run is at Windsor's Theatre Royal from Monday, August 4 until Saturday, August 9. Box office 01753 853888.