Nigel Bradshaw

The Wentworth Star

Nigel contacted P-TWS [Prisoner - The Wentworth Star] through his agent, The Actor's Agency, late last year. After a couple of months we received a cassette tape with all the replies you could ever wish from this generous man, who played one of Prisoner's most favourite Officers. Nigel currently resides in England.

Nigel did you start your acting career in England?
Yes, I started my acting career at the Farnham Rep, as a student where I was doing just about everything from sweeping the stage to being on the prompt to helping with the lights and sound and I would play small parts and that's how in fact I started. It was a nice family atmosphere and that was how I was impassioned into acting from that I caught the bug. I was very young as an actor. I was seventeen!

What was your first TV role and do you remember how you felt the first day on the set?
My first role was many years ago, in England. I did one episode of Comedy Playhouse. I did it with Lynne Frederick, she was Peter Sellers' wife and has recently died in the last couple of years. I played her boyfriend who was a long haired hippy accountant. I'm going back a long way now, back to the 70's! I was terribly nervous. I remember seeing a shot of me and I wobbled so much that I wobbled out of frame. Really, it was wobbles through nerves!

Is your acting technique different to an actor from Australia ie the way one would create a character?
No, they're the same and whatever method the actor uses it is the same whichever country you are in.

How did you find out about the role of Dennis Cruickshank?
I arrived in Australia and I went around meeting various companies, Grundy being one of them and they asked me to do a screen test which in fact I did. I read for the current warder at that time and they liked what I did so they wrote Dennis Cruickshank for me because I was a Pom and I could do a Northern accent. So that's how it came about.

What was the main reason for taking the role of Dennis Cruickshank?
Well, simply I arrived in Australia within a couple of months they offered it to me. I knew nothing about acting in Australia and it seemed like a good way to learn. At the time I had done television here but I'd never been a regular character because my main body of work had been in theatre. It was a challenge and it got me into the Australian industry very quickly, so for that I was eternally grateful.

What did you admire most about the actors on Prisoner?
Their timing. Doing two hours a week on those schedules, you had to be professional and if an actor comes in who isn't professional then those schedules would show them up. So I was impressed by the team effort on Prisoner.

What are the differences for an actor working on an English series as oppose to an Australian series?
In terms of soaps, it's time. In Australia you actually have quite a bit less time. You would do two hours on Coronation Street and Eastenders but you'd have double the time.

Were you satisfied with Dennis' departure from Prisoner and was it purposefully left open for your return?
I can hardly remember it, it was so long ago. I was wheeled off into the sunset in a wheelchair with my legs blown off, something like that (laughter). So, yeah, it was fine. Certainly it wasn't impossible for me to return, but we didn't particularly discuss it at the time but if they had wanted me to return and I had wanted to return, I could have. The fact was, when I left Prisoner it wasn't long after, that I came back to England.

You appeared recently in Blue Heelers - was that a planned working holiday for you?
Yeah, I came across for a year in 1993. I just wanted to come back because it had been seven or eight years since I'd been to Australia, so I came back to see what it was like. The Blue Heelers part was a small role and I did that for a friend, Judith John-Story, who is a director on Neighbours, who I actually met on Neighbours because I was in Neighbours for five to six months during that period and I also did Man From Snowy River, an advertising campaign etc. That's why I was there for a year, to retap my Australian spirits.

What impresses you most about Australia?
It's a great country! I love Australians. Love their openness. I love the climate. We're in the British summer at the moment which isn't so bad, it's sweltering hot here and I have my windows open in the study and it's absolutely beautiful. But Australia is a young country. It doesn't have the history that we have, of course, but I find it is more positive in a lot of ways. It has more energy, more directness than here. I find 'Ocker' Australians mostly sensitive and I like them, so primarily it is the people, apart from the glorious restaurants and it's also cheaper to live in Australia, too!

Prisoner has quite a cult following and is now back on Australian television - what do you feel about the devotion of this 16 year old series?
I think that's great. I mean who would have ever thought Prisoner would have that kind of cult viewing that it does? When I came back here, I didn't even know it was being shown! I remember somebody from British Telecom came to put a new telephone point in. He was clearly a greatly devoted fan on Prisoner and that was when I realised there was a cult following for it here. I don't know, I suppose some part of it mystifies me, but there you go.

What would you like the future to hold for your acting career?
Interesting parts of course! Always. I can't say more than that really. I have no great ambition to go to Hollywood or anything silly. I kind of fulfilled most of what I wanted to do. So in terms of roles, a role which stretches your imagination that you feel you have something to bring to it from your own experience, they're always the interesting ones. Well, good luck with the Fan Club. Send us a copy when you have it all printed up. You know I might even see you in Australia when I'm back in 1996!!! Take care and good luck.