Why Tim went gay

WHEN Tim Healy set out in pursuit of the North-East's comedy legends he never expected a gay pantomime dame to get in the way. Having decided to make a DVD called Healey's Heroes, Tim is busy arranging a series of stand-up comedy nights where he'll co-star with the likes of Bobby Knoxall.

But after booking The Customs House, South Shields, for a performance with Bobby on Tuesday, Tim received a one-man-show script he couldn't turn down even if it means "sharing a dressing room every night until the end of August on Edinburgh Fringe Festival pay rates... which aren't high".

Now Tim is desperately scribbling a stand-up comedy script in time for Tuesday having accomplished the task of learning an hour's monologue to become Harold, a closet gay Widow Twankey with a tragic tale to tell. The hour-long play, called Twinkle Little Star, is the debut piece by South Shields-born writer Philip Meeks, who tried for three years to persuade the likes of John Inman, Stanley Baxter and Barry Howard to take on the project. So why did Tim, the archetypal Geordie tough guy, opt to play gay for the first time in his career?

"I'm an actor so it's okay for me but I'm getting some odd looks I have to say when fans of Denis from Auf Wiedersehen Pet come along and are getting the shock of their lives. I'm not mincing around like Julian Clary or John Inman because this guy has lied about being gay all his life. I purposely didn't want to go over the top because that would be an insult to the gay community.

"Harold has had a really tough life because he's old enough to recall when homosexuality was illegal up until 1966, so he's been living two lives pretending that he wasn't gay. It's a great script and I'd always wanted to do a one man play so I'm up and running and it's going great guns. You can't ask more from theatre than to make them laugh, make them cry and have a surprise twist at the end," says Tim who reveals he's had little old ladies in tears as Harold transforms into Widow Twankey at the festival's Gilded Balloon Teviot venue.

Tim plays all the theatre characters as he tells a bitter-sweet tale of his partner dying and seeing the art of panto hijacked by reality TV celebs.

"Harold is 65 and I'm 54 so I've got plenty of time to go in this role. There's talk of them developing it into a film, otherwise I'll save it to take on tour when I'm out of work," he jokes.

Strangely, the role came straight after playing gay Sean's (Antony Cotton) dad Brian for six episodes of Coronation Street which Tim also found rewarding. "The producers asked me if I was interested in coming back and I said I was. What I find odd about The Street is that regular cast members are more likely to tell me about being offered more work before I'm told officially. They seem to know first," he quips.

It's actually Tim's second starring role at the Edinburgh Festival having toured with Newcastle's Live Theatre way back in 1979 with the C P Taylor play Bandits. At one time he seemed destined to be a permanent fixture on the stand-up comedy circuit and recalls playing most of the pubs and clubs in the North-East before TV stardom came calling.

"I wish I'd started filming my comedy heroes earlier because my all-time favourite Bobby Thompson is no longer with us, but I will be including some footage of him in the DVD," says Tim, who rates Bolton's Peter Kay and the North-East's own Ross Noble as current heroes of comedy.

As for the big comedy night of his own, he comments: "I had no idea this play was going to come in and it was too good to turn down so I've literally got to take one night off to dash down to South Shields. My band's going to be there so there'll be plenty of songs, stories and a chance for the audience to ask questions."

He and Bobby Knoxall have a friendship going back 30 years and the cameras will roll to capture this rare double bill of laughter-makers. But the next time you see Tim on stage in Newcastle he may well be something like a dame if he agrees to bring Twinkle Little Star to Tyneside.