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[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
Nicky wants everything yesterday. He's from a tough family background and, however hard he tries, he can't help getting into trouble. He has a strong sense of humour and a sharp natural intelligence, but he is easily distracted. At the end of the first series of RUSH, he was waiting to go to court after a series of brushes with the police. In the second series, he served a prison sentence and was struggling to cope with the isolation.
'Nicky is interesting as he is a trouble-maker and a criminal, but one can't help get the impression he is not all bad,' says Jonny Nelson, who plays the part. 'I would say he was led astray by his family, and it is a classic case of bad parenting resulting in a problematic adolescence.
'It was not that easy to get into the mentality of someone who is so illogical, and it was difficult when something so glaringly obvious to me seemed to bewilder Nicky. He would always make the same mistakes time and time again. Nicky just will not listen or learn. It is a bit frustrating to read the script and think, "Oh, Nicky, you plonker. Use your brain."
'Filming RUSH has been great fun throughout and the people are very entertaining. The hours are long and the actual filming process is so slow – it seems to take an eternity for each scene. But I am told by the crew we are working at a fast pace!'
Jonny went to Mary Hare school and then worked on a voluntary basis with his brother Mark Nelson at Remark!, an independent deaf-run multimedia production company, with the idea of gaining work experience before university. However, he decided to pursue his acting career full-time instead and, through Remark!, he was introduced to Ray Harrison Graham, RUSH's writer and producer. As well as Nicky in RUSH, Jonny played Mr Blond in Remark!'s Reservoir Wolves.
'My ambitions, apart from winning the lottery (if that can be considered an ambition), would be to appear on EastEnders,' he says. 'More realistically, I would like to get involved in more acting work, such as in theatre or other television projects.'