Cast Interviews | Frank Gallagher

"Well you just roll back the sheets and there he is. I'm not a plot-giver-awayer, but I think people will be surprised with the way the series is going.

"There's one major thread that goes through the series, which I don't want to give away, but there are enough surprises - in the way in which we are approaching the filming as well as just the scripts.

"I think that it's a very exciting time for the show. The scripts are as good as they've ever been, as strong as they've ever been and surprising as they've ever been."

How has being in the new studio changed the way you do things?

"It gives you the facility, as you can see today, to drop in and out and that's the ideal thing when you've got to call actors accordingly for those particular scenes.

"It means if it's raining you can come in real quick. You don't have to organise and lose an hour or two, or a day, to go onto locations. We have canteens and dressing rooms which is a real plus. The management is all in one building [which helps with] communication."

"Just coming in and working with everybody. I mean he's chemically and alcoholically challenged isn't he?

"But he's just a joy, just a joy to do. I mean I wouldn't come back if I didn't think there was more to come. None of us would."

So there's much more scope in Frank as a character?

"Oh god yeah and all the characters because as I say we wouldn't be here. My commitment to it is pretty full on at the moment, what with the directing of it."

Is this the first thing you've directed?

"On TV, yeah. I love it. It's perhaps not ideal [in that] it's like a schizophrenic process - acting and then going off to look at the monitor.

"But if I wasn't doing it above satisfaction I wouldn't be doing it and that was the deal. I just love it. I just love coming to work."

What does Frank say about the smoking ban in the Jockey?

"He's not saying anything, he hasn't noticed it!"

"Well, I say this without any self grandism [sic], but I'm playing him and I'm quite a decent bloke really...

"I think the easiest mistake to make would to be to make him foul all the time and I've found that from the word go. I think there's a lot of love on the show.

"You have to find those moments where he does what is required as a father and shows that he cares in his own way.

"What people are and what they seem are two different things and so quite often it's what makes people interesting.

"[If you] keep creating facets of the character, you are teasing out more aspects of them that weren't apparent."

What are the similarities between you and Frank?

"Just what I knew growing up. For 18 years I grew up in this town so there's a lot of people I knew not too far from the area that the show is set in.

"They made great impressions on me so there are bits of me there. But I can nowhere near drink or take the amount of "intakes" that he does, and still stand up!"

Well we love you both. Thanks David

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