Wor story

Robson Green is singing in his new TV film. But he’s not aiming for chart glory in Joe Maddison’s War, but joining the Home Guard. He tells Steve Pratt about writer Alan Plater’s final piece of work and what his son thinks about his voice.

Creepers over and over again. Not in a bid to resuscitate a pop career that fared remarkably well when he was one half of duo Robson and Jerome opposite Soldier Soldier co-star Jerome Flynn, the “encores” are simply a requirement of filming, that the same scene is shot over and over again until all the elements are perfect.

The makers of ITV1’s wartime-on-Tyneside film Joe Maddison’s War have turned the usually quiet village of Heddon-on-the-Wall into a hive of filming activity. The village hall has been commandeered for a wedding party scene, where Green and fellow actor Trevor Fox are the singing entertainment.

Kevin Whately is jiving on the dance floor.

He’s the Joe Maddison of the title, a shipyard worker who fought in the trenches in the First World War and who now finds himself in the Home Guard in the second. Green plays his best mate, with virtually every Geordie actor you care to name in supporting roles in what turned out to be Jarrow-born writer Alan Plater’s last work.

Once the break for lunch is called, Green pulls on vest and shorts to go running. Exercise completed, he chats in his trailer back at base in the Blucher Social Club car park. Ah, the glamour of filming.

His wife, Vanya, and ten-year-old son, Taylor, have been watching the filming. Green saw his son wearing a “what on earth is my father doing?” expression as he performed Jeepers Creepers. “Taylor’s at school thinking about jobs like surgeons, lawyers, computer experts, engineering – and here’s his father with makeup on, poncing about singing Jeepers Creepers.

But he had a smile on his face.”

Now, Green wears the expression of someone who’s spent the previous hour putting themself through their paces. “I lead a relatively healthy life and try to get training in six days a week,” he says.

“It helps you as an actor to keep fit. There’s dialogue to learn and, as one gets older, one’s memory tends to fade. Things aren’t as sharp as they were.

“There are things coming up I need to be fit for, physically and mentally. In terms of expenditure, a personal trainer is the best few quid I could have spent. It’s about keeping fit and working on the diet.”

He admits it’s all to do with age – he’s 45 – and looking right for the parts he’s asked to play. “A lot of the characters are guys who seem to be romantically involved and you have to be fit for that. You have to believe the scenario and part of that is to keep fit.”

Joe Maddison’s War marks a return to drama after reality shows such as Extreme Fishing and Extreme Swimming.

His character, Harry, met Joe in the trenches in the Somme, where they witnessed death and destruction. “They weren’t only physically scarred, but also mentally scarred for life.

They’ve had to survive with all these hidden traumas, thinking there would never be another war and now there is.

“Men fought in the trenches and for what?

To come back to the dole. It wasn’t the conditions, it was the lies. They were wondering what they were fighting for and realised they were shooting at people they probably would’ve liked and got on with.”

He hasn’t done a period piece for a while, but relishes the challenge, although admits it isn’t easy turning back the years. “The first day the director made me go again and again and again. He said I wasn’t getting it right – and he was right. I was being too modern. I was too quick in the way I moved. There was a direct way people spoke in the Forties. Like my father, they were very deliberate.”

One of the attractions was the film’s author Alan Plater as he (and Michael Chaplin) wrote Blackberry Time, the first play in which Green appeared, at Newcastle’s Live Theatre.

Surprisingly, he’s never worked before with Whately, although their paths have crossed many times (“usually at a football match”).

He’s full of praise for the Lewis and Inspector Morse star. “He has this unquantifiable quality that compels you to watch him. He’s an Everyman. He’s a lovable, lovable man in front of the camera and behind it. I’ve found it a joy to be working alongside him.”

Filming Joe Maddison’s War didn’t take him further than Northumberland, after several years of going round the world making documentaries.

He reels off the places in which he’s filmed (Brazil, the Amazon, Cuba, Florida, California, Maldives, India … the list goes on).

“That doesn’t come along too often. You get paid lots of money and travel the world. That’s a great way to fulfil one’s life,” he says.

HIS Newcastle-based production company, Coastal, has been affected by cutbacks in TV, but has recently completed a feature film and has other ideas in development. “We’ve been through a tough two years, but managed to keep our head above water,” he says.

He’s also realistic enough to know there are ups and downs in any business. “The money comes in as and when the market demands. It’s basic economics,” he says.

“People want to watch X Factor and I’m A Celebrity, they want to watch people in desperate need for approval and recognition and making fools of themselves. Hey, that’s what the market is at the moment and so be it.

“That means drama takes a hit. But, as long as we tell stories and tell them well, the future will be all right.

“There’s a lot going on in the North-East and that’s much to do with One North East and investment in the area. It shows the area in a very good light. The problem you’ve always had is people waiting for something to happen instead of being part of making it happen. You have to create an infrastructure to get good quality work up here. It’s a great location and has the personnel.”

He sounds like he’d make a good Chancellor of the Exchequer. “It doesn’t take an Oxford don to work that out,” says Green. “My father always said invest in people and the rewards will come.”

■ Joe Maddison’s War: Sunday, ITV1, 9pm