Philip Glenister interview 2006 - Radio Times, December 2006

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Philip Glenister interview 2006 - Radio Times, December 2006

The actor behind Life on Mars's swearing, boozing, non-PC plod, DCI Gene Hunt, talks about what 2006 held for him.

How the year began…

Chilling out, but just about getting ready to do all the press for series one of Life on Mars. We'd actually finished filming in September and I decided to take some time off. I'd spent most of the previous six months up in Manchester and I really just wanted to spend a bit of time with the family.

Professional highlight of 2006?

Getting a whole bunch of texts from my mates on the night the first show went out saying, 'You bastard! We want to be in Life on Mars.' One of the best things about the show was that it got blokes sitting down to watch drama. Normally, the main drama audience is women, but the whole 1970s thing and the cars - blokes loved it.

The 70s was my era. People ask me, 'What about all the crap stuff from 1973?' I was ten years old. There was no crap. The worst thing that could happen in life was me losing one of my comics.

Personal highlight of 2006?

I got married [to actress Beth Goddard]. We've been together for a while and we thought, 'Why not?' It was a low-key affair, just us and some close friends. Somebody I know came back from a wedding in America recently, and there were 300 guests! You'd never have time to speak to them all.

What's happening next year?

There's nothing in the diary. At the moment, I'm still thinking about Life on Mars, because we'll have quite a lot of media work to do when the second series goes out. And after that… I don't know. I guess everybody knows that there won't be any more Life on Mars. We didn't want it to run past its sell-by date.

But I'm not one of those actors who starts worrying if there's no work lined up. I just keep having a look at the bank balance and as soon as it starts running low, I'll think about doing something else. The thing about working on something as good as this is that it makes you choosy. I want my next thing to be as good and as much fun as Life on Mars, but sadly, most of the scripts you get sent are total b******s.

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Read our 2007 interview with Philip Glenister - or take a look at our full Life on Mars guide.

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