Community

Celebrities at Foxy Bingo

Brian Capron at Foxy Bingo

Brain Capron was our special guest on Foxy Radio on Thursday June 5th. You can listen to that show again here.

He may have sent Coronation Street's ratings through the roof as the spine-chilling serial killer Richard Hillman but when Foxy caught up with actor Brian Capron we found a nothing more than a perfect English gent – unless you steal his script that is!

You've been in everything from Grange Hill to Midsomer Murders and are of course famous for playing Corrie's serial killer Richard Hillman. Most recently you were first to be voted off Strictly Come Dancing – that couldn't have been easy.

I was upset initially when I was voted off Strictly Come Dancing but what people didn't realise was I had flu, my head was somewhere else. It seemed fair enough though, although I wasn't ashamed of the dance. I was paid every week until Christmas and got to stay at home, so that was fantastic. And when Carol and I went to do GMTV afterwards they paid for a suite for each of us at the Savoy and a meal at the Savoy Grill. We had such a laugh. At the end of the meal we looked at each other and said, "Hey, life's not so bad".

Plus it's left me with great posture. After five weeks of dance rehearsals I remember a mate saying, "God you look different". It was because I was standing up straight. For years after Coronation Street I walked along with my eyes on the floor so I wouldn't be recognised. Everywhere I went people shouted, "Richard, Richard, Richard, murderer, murderer, murderer." It was hell. I'm not complaining, it's done me a lot of good, but after the fifty thousandth person goes, "Ooh you're Richard," you feel like saying, "Yes I f'ing well am, you know?"

Did anyone ever get aggressive?

Only very rarely. Once, at a personal appearance, a lady hit me over the head with her umbrella. So we went to another part of town and then she burst through the crowd and did it again. I think she was a bit of a lunatic. The thing with the Richard Hillman character is that he was actually slightly theatrical, so if you watched him a lot, like real aficionados of Coronation Street did, he was very amusing. I mean there were some very dark funny lines that they wrote for me. I think you ended up loving to hate him but also seeing a warm side to him.

What's your funniest memory from your Corrie days?

They're always difficult questions. I suppose one of the strangest things that happened was when Julie Goodyear, who played Bet Gilroy, came back to the show. It wasn't a very popular decision to bring her back and she suddenly had to leave half way though one of the biggest storylines. We all turned up one day and there was no filming because she had a letter from the doctor saying she couldn't be there. All the scenes changed which meant I had eight scenes to learn for the next day. On my way home I stopped to get milk and while I was in the shop a man outside saw four kids take my briefcase from my car. It had all my new scripts in it. I knew there were no more scripts because they'd just been typed and you definitely can't go into Coronation Street without knowing the dialogue. I was so furious I drove straight after them onto this pretty rough estate. Suddenly there were four guys walking towards me in hoodies. One had my sunglasses on, another had my mobile. I was so angry I jumped out of the car shouting obscenities at them. I don't know whether it was because they thought I was Richard Hillman or what, but they ran for it. They'd thrown my briefcase in the road so my scripts were all over the street, and there I am scrabbling around on the ground rescuing them. I was of course told I should have never have followed them because anything could have happened. But I was so angry I didn't care, I just went mad. Anyway I got my scripts back, so I went in the next day and knew all the lines.

Did you know you were going to play a killer when you took the part?

Nobody knew it was going to go that way. When I was first with Gail I played Richard as a really loving family man. That was a good decision in the end because he became what I would call a normal psychopath - the kind of guy who washes his car on a Sunday, until the truth comes out and everyone says, "But he seemed like such a nice bloke".

Did you enjoy playing him?

It was fabulous, because there I was, a jobbing actor in his fifties - you know there's not much work around for actors at my age. And, while I've always been in work, to take it to a different level was fabulous.

Are there any downsides to having that sort of success?

The downside is definitely what happens to your family. It was like we were in the eye of a storm with the Richard Hillman situation. You film the show and then the storyline suddenly catches up with you. It was like being a Manchester United footballer without the money. But I made a decision very early on to just get on with life. So if people say hello to me and are nice I always say hello, smile or give them a thumbs up. The worst situation for me is queuing because it gives people time to go "Ooh look it's...and it all starts up." And it's taken its toll on my kids. My little boy was so badly bullied at school because of Richard Hillman he had to change schools. The upsides are that I've been flown around the world, sent to the Borneo jungle, to New Zealand, been to fabulous parties, which are of course bollocks but never the less you kind of fancy them sometimes. So when I'm occasionally in an awkward situation and have to chat to a couple of people, I don't mind. People are lovely you know.

You had a spate of doing movies in the nineties, were you not tempted to work more in Hollywood?

They were really not big parts you know. I did about three or four weeks on the film Emma. It's just the way it goes. You tend to build a series of contacts, as with any other job and TV has always been my thing. I started in the theatre and have always gone back to it, but TV is my thing. And I don't want to go abroad. I've always had family here and I don't like being away from them. It's bad enough going away in England. Plus I really love this country.

What are your favourite things about the UK?

Well I love the radio. I think the radio is one of the best things we've got. I still think that British television is fantastic quality compared to anywhere else in the world. I live in Brighton and I have to say it's one of the best places on the planet to live – the sea, the people, the bars and restaurants and all the culture we have in Britain. I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

So what's next?

I'm in a play at the National Theatre in London at the moment called Harper Regan by Simon Stephens. He won the Olivier ward for his last play so it's really top drawer. I was a bit disappointed when they pulled my storylines from Coronation Street, so I feel so lucky that I've been given the opportunity to reinvent myself in shows like this, Guys and Dolls and the Rocky Horror Show. It's just been fabulous.