Now, Green wears the expression of someone who’s spent the previous hour putting themself through their paces.
“I lead a relatively healthy life and try to get training in six days a week,” he says.
“It helps you as an actor to keep fit. There’s dialogue to learn and, as one gets older, one’s memory tends to fade. Things aren’t as sharp as they were.
“There are things coming up I need to be fit for, physically and mentally. In terms of expenditure, a personal trainer is the best few quid I could have spent. It’s about keeping fit and working on the diet.”
He admits it’s all to do with age – he’s 45 – and looking right for the parts he’s asked to play.
“A lot of the characters are guys who seem to be romantically involved and you have to be fit for that. You have to believe the scenario and part of that is to keep fit.”
Joe Maddison’s War marks a return to drama after reality shows such as Extreme Fishing and Extreme Swimming.
His character, Harry, met Joe in the trenches in the Somme, where they witnessed death and destruction.
“They weren’t only physically scarred, but also mentally scarred for life.
They’ve had to survive with all these hidden traumas, thinking there would never be another war and now there is.
“Men fought in the trenches and for what ? To come back to the dole. It wasn’t the conditions, it was the lies. They were wondering what they were fighting for and realised they were shooting at people they probably would’ve liked and got on with.”
He hasn’t done a period piece for a while, but relishes the challenge, although admits it isn’t easy turning back the years.
“The first day the director made me go again and again and again. He said I wasn’t getting it right – and he was right. I was being too modern. I was too quick in the way I moved. There was a direct way people spoke in the Forties. Like my father, they were very deliberate.”
One of the attractions was the film’s author Alan Plater as he (and Michael Chaplin) wrote Blackberry Time, the first play in which Green appeared, at Newcastle’s Live Theatre.
Surprisingly, he’s never worked before with Whately, although their paths have crossed many times (“usually at a football match”).
He’s full of praise for the Lewis and Inspector Morse star.
“He has this unquantifiable quality that compels you to watch him. He’s an Everyman. He’s a lovable, lovable man in front of the camera and behind it. I’ve found it a joy to be working alongside him.”
Filming Joe Maddison’s War didn’t take him further than Northumberland, after several years of going round the world making documentaries.
He reels off the places in which he’s filmed (Brazil, the Amazon, Cuba, Florida, California, Maldives, India … the list goes on).
“That doesn’t come along too often. You get paid lots of money and travel the world. That’s a great way to fulfil one’s life,” he says.
HIS Newcastle-based production company, Coastal, has been affected by cutbacks in TV, but has recently completed a feature film and has other ideas in development.
“We’ve been through a tough two years, but managed to keep our head above water,” he says.
He’s also realistic enough to know there are ups and downs in any business.
“The money comes in as and when the market demands. It’s basic economics,” he says.
“People want to watch X Factor and I’m A Celebrity, they want to watch people in desperate need for approval and recognition and making fools of themselves. Hey, that’s what the market is at the moment and so be it.
“That means drama takes a hit. But, as long as we tell stories and tell them well, the future will be all right.
“There’s a lot going on in the North-East and that’s much to do with One North East and investment in the area. It shows the area in a very good light. The problem you’ve always had is people waiting for something to happen instead of being part of making it happen. You have to create an infrastructure to get good quality work up here. It’s a great location and has the personnel.”
He sounds like he’d make a good Chancellor of the Exchequer. “It doesn’t take an Oxford don to work that out,” says Green.
“My father always said invest in people and the rewards will come.”
Meanwhile Kevin Whately, who plays nice guy Joe Maddison, says the characters dependable and easy-going nature suited him just fine.
I've always played the boy-next-door. I can't play flash. I can't carry it off and I don't try, he explains.
Everyman parts are the ones I seem to get. I don't know why and I'm not sure I want to know ! I've never had a matinee idol look and I've never had any sense of fashion, so I tend to be ordinary and play ordinary, which suits me.
Joe Maddison is a perfect example. He's a grafter with a strong moral sense and he's brave. I admire him a lot. There is an old-fashioned honesty and generosity about him.
Kevin was delighted to be back in his native North East for filming in the spring, which proved a family affair, with his wife Madelaine Newton also appearing in the drama as Jenny Barlow, the local gossip.
We had a flat in the middle of Newcastle while we were filming. We had two or three scenes together. We haven't acted together for a long time.
We actually met in a stage play in Newcastle. She played the lead in that and I had a little walk-on role. We also did a kids series together and she was with me in the second series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
To research for the role of Joe, Kevin watched several documentaries set in the 1930s, as well as reading up on the lives of World War One-platoon soldiers.
And he also drew on real-life wartime stories from his own family - his father was in the navy during the war and his uncle in the army.
My dad was on North Atlantic convoys. And my wife's dad was a merchant engineer during the war and was sunk three times and torpedoed twice. But like a lot of people who lived through it, they just didn't talk about it.
That's one of the things we try to show in Joe Maddison's War. Both Joe and Harry bottle it all up and only occasionally talk about it. It was a different time. The realities of the war were hidden from people.
Kevin had never worked with Robson Green or Trevor Fox before, but said the camaraderie amongst the almost entirely Geordie cast was absolutely fantastic.
Robson and Trevor have known each other for years and Trevor is hysterical. On screen, Robson and I could not get our punch lines in, because when Trevor set up a gag on screen he just made us howl with laughter. We completely wrecked shots because we giggled through them.
The drama also saw Kevin reunited with Melanie Hill, who he worked with in the mid-1980s on Auf Wiedersehen Pet, when she played the wife of Timothy Spalls character Barry in the first two series. She plays pretty local widow Selina.
Kevin now lives in Milton Keynes and admits filming in the North East made him feel nostalgic.
The best times are a frosty morning somewhere and you find a lovely view. The great thing is we've had fantastic locations - a lot of them places I haven't seen for 40 years. And I love being able to work outdoors.
Filming in Northumberland also brought back memories of Kevin's big break in television, playing Neville Hope in the 1980s comedy series Auf Wiedersehen Pet, following the fortunes of a group of Geordie builders as they try their hand in Germany.
The series also launched the television careers of Geordie pals Tim Healy and Jimmy Nail.
I owe everything to that show really. We were all unknown and there was a real chemistry between us. We were - and still are - like a band of brothers. Were still in touch with each other. Auf Wiedersehen Pet led directly to Morse and everything else really.
And the 59-year-old actor, who has two grown-up children and a granddaughter - three year-old Ivy - admits he doesn't try to work all the year round any more.
I like to spend time with the family. I'm a professional child-minder to Ivy three or four days a week. I love being a granddad, but I have not played one yet.
Robson, 45, says: The director said to me: This is not Dads Army. But there is an underlying homage to Dads Army - were crawling over turnip fields pretending to look for submarines and there's one scene where we arrest a statue that we think is a German solider.
And I loved Dads Army - it was wonderful. It doesn't tire and my son Taylor watches it - he knows all the words to Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr. Hitler. There was pathos and humor and camaraderie in Dads Army, just like Joe Maddison's War.
The film reunites Robson with Trevor Fox, who plays Eddie, who he has known since they were teenagers together at the Live Theatre in Newcastle. But it is the first time he has ever appeared alongside Kevin Whately.
Incredibly, we have never worked together. We see each other and we both suffer in silence at St James's Park watching Newcastle United, so it's a lovely privilege to work with him finally.
There was an instant camaraderie as soon as I arrived on the set. Kevin is lovely and he's the captain of the ship and a very good one. Trevor Fox I've grown up with and he's a joy to be with too - and what a privilege to work with Derek Jacobi.
Robson grew up in the small pit village of Dudley on North Tyneside. After school, he spent two year working in the shipyards before deciding to try his hand professionally at acting.
He now lives with his family in Surrey, but he still has a cottage on the Coquet where he loves trout fishing. He was delighted to return there during the four weeks of filming earlier this year.
It's always wonderful when - during your time filming - you can see your brothers and sisters and your mum. It's just fabulous and I love being there. I am always relaxed in the North East and I feel very comfortable. It is where I belong. Its home.
It's my roots, my sense of identity. It means everything to me.
I dislike people who self-promote. I don't like the sort of people who run golf clubs and what they represent - who do they think they are with their presidents parking spaces ?
The film has given Robson the utmost respect for the veterans of both World Wars.
They were called heroes but they came back to poverty and rejection and they were left on the scrap heap to suffer. It is a time we should never forget and we should never forget those who gave their lives for our freedom.
Despite the somber background of World War Two, the film has many lighter moments.
Robson, 45, says: The director said to me: This is not Dads Army. But there is an underlying homage to Dads Army - were crawling over turnip fields pretending to look for submarines and there's one scene where we arrest a statue that we think is a German solider.
And I loved Dads Army - it was wonderful. It doesn't tire and my son Taylor watches it - he knows all the words to Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr. Hitler. There was pathos and humor and camaraderie in Dads Army, just like Joe Maddison's War.
The film reunites Robson with Trevor Fox, who plays Eddie, who he has known since they were teenagers together at the Live Theatre in Newcastle. But it is the first time he has ever appeared alongside Kevin Whately.
Incredibly, we have never worked together. We see each other and we both suffer in silence at St James's Park watching Newcastle United, so it's a lovely privilege to work with him finally.
There was an instant camaraderie as soon as I arrived on the set. Kevin is lovely and he's the captain of the ship and a very good one. Trevor Fox I've grown up with and he's a joy to be with too - and what a privilege to work with Derek Jacobi.
Robson grew up in the small pit village of Dudley on North Tyneside. After school, he spent two year working in the shipyards before deciding to try his hand professionally at acting.
He now lives with his family in Surrey, but he still has a cottage on the Coquet where he loves trout fishing. He was delighted to return there during the four weeks of filming earlier this year.
It's always wonderful when - during your time filming - you can see your brothers and sisters and your mum.
It's just fabulous and I love being there. I am always relaxed in the North East and I feel very comfortable. It is where I belong. Its home. It's my roots and my sense of identity - it means everything to me.
Meanwhile Kevin Whately, who plays nice guy Joe Maddison, says the characters dependable and easy-going nature suited him just fine.
I've always played the boy-next-door. I can't play flash. I can't carry it off and I don't try, he explains. Everyman parts are the ones I seem to get. I don't know why and I'm not sure I want to know ! I've never had a matinee idol look and I've never had any sense of fashion, so I tend to be ordinary and play ordinary, which suits me.
He doesn't suffer fools easily and neither do I. He rebels against authority and I'm a bit like that.
I dislike people who self-promote. I don't like the sort of people who run golf clubs and what they represent - who do they think they are with their presidents parking spaces?
The film has given Robson the utmost respect for the veterans of both World Wars.
They were called heroes but they came back to poverty and rejection and they were left on the scrap heap to suffer. It is a time we should never forget and we should never forget those who gave their lives for our freedom. Despite the somber background of World War Two, the film has many lighter moments.
Did you do much research ?
Kevin Whately: I was around not that long after the war so it feels quite close to home. No one talked about it, I only remember my dad telling one story.
Robson Green: My grandfather was in the trenches at 15 and he never spoke about it. I think real soldiers who’ve seen destruction don’t boast about it, they hide the scars of what they’ve seen.
Have you enjoyed working together for the first time ?
Kevin Whately: Yes, it’s been really great. I saw Robson in his first show at the Live Theatre in Newcastle.
Robson Green: I’m in awe of Kevin. I’ve seen him many times at St James’s Park and at Wembley as he’s a massive Newcastle fan. To work with him is brilliant.
Filming up in your native Northeast must have been fun ?
Kevin Whately: It was like a holiday, it was great seeing cousins and other relatives.
Robson Green: I have a house in the Northeast and my wife Vanya and son Taylor came up too. We visited grandma, uncles and aunties, which was really good for him. I want him to have a sense of what the place is about because I feel very at ease there. It’s a sense of belonging.
Cliquez pour agrandir l'article : Joe Maddison's War is on ITV1 Tyne Tees this weekend. Sunday (19 Septembre 2010)
Writer Alan Plater on Joe Maddison's War (15 Septembre 2010) ... lire la suite de l'article en ligne : The late great TV writer Alan Plater, in his last interview, on the demise of ‘proper drama’
ROBSON GREEN SINGS JEEPERS
Robson Green is singing in his new TV film. But he’s not aiming for chart glory in Joe Maddison’s War, but joining the Home Guard. He tells Steve Pratt about writer Alan Plater’s final piece of work and what his son thinks about his voice.
Creepers over and over again. Not in a bid to resuscitate a pop career that fared remarkably well when he was one half of duo Robson and Jerome opposite Soldier Soldier co-star Jerome Flynn, the “encores” are simply a requirement of filming, that the same scene is shot over and over again until all the elements are perfect.
The makers of ITV1’s wartime-on-Tyneside film Joe Maddison’s War have turned the usually quiet village of Heddon-on-the-Wall into a hive of filming activity.
The village hall has been commandeered for a wedding party scene, where Green and fellow actor Trevor Fox are the singing entertainment.
Kevin Whately is jiving on the dance floor.
He’s the Joe Maddison of the title, a shipyard worker who fought in the trenches in the First World War and who now finds himself in the Home Guard in the second. Green plays his best mate, with virtually every Geordie actor you care to name in supporting roles in what turned out to be Jarrow-born writer Alan Plater’s last work.
Once the break for lunch is called, Green pulls on vest and shorts to go running. Exercise completed, he chats in his trailer back at base in the Blucher Social Club car park. Ah, the glamour of filming.
His wife, Vanya, and ten-year-old son, Taylor, have been watching the filming. Green saw his son wearing a “what on earth is my father doing ?” expression as he performed Jeepers Creepers.
“Taylor’s at school thinking about jobs like surgeons, lawyers, computer experts, engineering – and here’s his father with makeup on, poncing about singing Jeepers Creepers. But he had a smile on his face.”
GEORDIE ACTING GREATS ENACT JOE MADDISON'S WAR
Former Soldier Soldier star Robson Green admits he didn't even read the Joe Maddison's War script before deciding to accept his role - once he realized it was the work of Jarrow-born, award-winning writer Alan Plater.
They said it was an Alan Plater script and I said: I'll do it, no problem. It's a no-brainer - his work speaks for itself. He is a wonderful writer.
It's an era I wish I'd grown up in because everyone lived life to the full: they did not know what would happen tomorrow or the next day, so they lived from moment to moment. I quite like that notion. Everything was spontaneous.
There was also a definite sense of community and togetherness and true patriotism. People were very proud of their country and what it stood for.
Robson plays the part of World War One veteran Harry, a cynical and rebellious character, and it is a part he identifies with.
Harry saw death and destruction on the Somme and thought there'd be some sort of reward at the end of it - instead of which, he's spent his whole life at work, being ordered about by cocky little sods that have no idea what they're talking about. He always rebels against authority and he doesn't like fake sincerity or liars.
He doesn't suffer fools easily and neither do I. He rebels against authority and I'm a bit like that.
ROBSON GREEN AND KEVIN WHATELY ON JOE MADDISON'S WAR
Robson Green and Kevin Whately are united on screen for the first time in Joe Maddison’s War on ITV1.
What’s it about in a nutshell ?
Robson Green: Kevin’s character Joe Maddison shared a trench in the Somme in 1916 with my character Harry Crawford and they were both damaged by the experience. They’ve tried to get through life with their reputations and sanity intact and with the onset of World War II they join the Home Guard.
Kevin Whately: They are mates and although they’ve both been affected by the trench experience, something in Joe has died really whereas Harry’s much more gung ho. It’s about Joe recovering his self respect.
Did you know much about the Home Guard ?
Kevin Whately: No. My dad served in the war in the Navy, all over the world, but I didn’t know anyone in the Home Guard.
Robson Green: Only from Dad’s Army. There’s a slight homage to the sitcom’s writer Jimmy Perry in that there’s a wonderful gallery of characters. What it meant emotionally not to be fit enough physically, and probably mentally, as a man to fight for king and country is dealt with in this story.
Is it fun being in a period drama ?
Kevin Whately: I look like a sack of spuds in what ever I wear! But Robson looks great.
ROBSON GREEN : Q&A
Can you tell us a bit about Joe Maddison's War ?
" I think it's going to be an event piece and a great tribute to Alan Plater, who created it and sadly passed away. It evokes a time of people living for the day - there was a time when you thought you were going to be dead in the next hour. It will resonate pleasant and unpleasant memories for a lot of people."
" I think it's basically saying, 'Lest we forget'. Let's not forget, let's remember those who died for our freedom. It's a very entertaining, beautifully crafted love story. "
What's the story about ?
" It revolves around this central character, played by Kevin Whately, who, along with my character Harry Crawford, fought in the trench in the Somme in World War I. He thought that after the war there would be some reward at the end of it - a wife, a family, full-time employment, ticker-tape reception wherever he goes, people are going to love him. "
" The reality's completely different. He comes back to poverty and unemployment. There then comes a time where they have to fight for their country again with the guys of the Home Guard. They're principled men, and they both have their reasons for joining and not joining. Joe joins up - I reluctantly join up because Joe is part of that organization, but Harry realizes that the Somme was one war too many and there was so much carnage. So he's a very embittered character. The only thing that keeps him going is Joe and that friendship and that is sort of the central root to the story. "
What's your character Harry like ?
" He's sort of like a lot of soldiers who fought in World War I - this is only from research and guys I've spoken to from World War II - who never talks about the war. He is belligerent, and he's worked in places up and down both banks of the Tyne - twice in some places - because of his situation and the way he behaves. "
" He doesn't suffer fools gladly, he detests title and those who use it falsely and he can spot a bullshitter a mile off. He's a very isolated character, Harry. The war had a profound effect on him and he has a life of confusion. But his stability comes from Joe and the camaraderie of that relationship. "
Is there much humor in the show ?
" All comedy comes out of tragedy. There were these nice surreal moments. But it's a very strange hybrid comedy drama because the comedy has to come out of the circumstance and the relationships. We don't ask you to laugh every three minutes and the lines don't force you to laugh. The laugh comes out of something real, as does the pain and the sorrow. It's not like Dad's Army, which was a sitcom, but the pathos is there. "
" I'm not a fan of sitcom because they're forcing you to laugh, you can see it in their delivery. But here it's in the relationships, you follow them. It's up to you to laugh."
You've signed up for a role in Being Human. How was that ?
" I'm still enjoying that! I'm still filming. I'm loving it, every second of it. The makeup is brilliant! Absolutely amazing. It takes a long while - five hours. It's great fun. "
Can you give us any hints about what you're doing on the show ?
" It's a father-son relationship. Both werewolves. You think they're father and son and they spend their life going around the country trying to kill every vampire that exists. And I'm in pursuit of one particular one, Herrick, the leader of all the vampires. That's my ultimate goal. And there is a moment with me and him having a ruck. "
Were you a fan of the show before you took the role ?
" Absolutely. Purely because I knew the director and I just thought I'd watch an episode. And I went, 'Actually, this is really quirky', so I loved it. But it's very different to a beautiful period drama written by Alan Plater, so it's great. "
Do you like taking on different roles ?
" I never used to. I used to always do mainstream drama - 'oh, he's the detective in this, oh he's the romantic lead in this one'. So it was very formulaic drama. I'm going to go left-field a bit in the next couple of years. "
Digital Spy- Catriona Wightman