Return to the stage (From Messenger Newspapers)

Return to the stage

1:13pm Thursday 17th January 2008

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John Highfield talks to former Coronation Street star John Savident about his return to the stage in Hobson's Choice.

Additional words by Rick Bowen.

FORMER policeman John Savident will be pounding a familiar beat when he returns to Salford's Lowry theatre later this month to star in a Lancashire comedy classic.

The actor, who won a place in the hearts of millions of soap fans for his portrayal of the booming butcher Fred Elliot in Coronation Street, has returned to the stage to play the larger than life Henry Hobson in Hobson's Choice.

A heavy drinking boot maker and, ultimately browbeaten father, Hobson is a sort of northern comic King Lear.

"I didn't want to do it really because it was another Lancashire character. For years nobody asked me to play a Lancashire character, only once or twice before Coronation Street and it never really took off. But now I've done Fred and I'm lumbered with it," he says.

That said, he's clearly enjoying the challenge of bringing a very different sort of character to life, even though he was aware that expectations were high for his return to the stage.

"I had all sorts of fears. People say it's your part and you'll be the definitive one and it's all added pressure on you. And when people are expecting something from you, you're going to have to come up with the goods," he says.

While John has a list of acting credits that seems to go on forever and includes roles in iconic films like A Clockwork Orange and The Remains of the Day, it's for the role of Fred Elliot, a man who would never use one word when ten would do, that many people remember him.

"I based him on people I know who spoke like that. It was all to do with the Industrial Revolution and the Lancashire mills, where people repeated themselves because of the noise of the looms," he says.

As for the future, John, who reveals he was recently invited to take part in Strictly Come Dancing, categorically rules out a return to soap opera land.

"I won't do any more soaps - you won't find me in The Bill," he says.

n The Lowry presents Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse from January 23-27 at 7.30pm, with matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm. Tickets are available from 0870 111 2000. For the full interview see Lifestyle magazine.

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