Guess who’s top of The Bill?

Mark Andrews talks to two top TV actors who are appearing at a West Midlands theatre next week.

Ben Roberts will never forget the time a stranger walked up to him in a supermarket, and asked him if “his Tony” was better yet.

“She recognised me from somewhere, but obviously thought I was somebody she knew. It was only after she had been talking for a while she realised I was somebody off the telly, and she didn’t know me at all.”

In the late 80s and 1990s, Roberts was one of the most instantly recognisable faces on television, playing the grouchy Derek Conway for 14 years.

The grumpy, reactionary chief inspector’s spats with his boss Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow, who was always more interested in public relations than the nitty-gritty of policing, provided much of the humour which made the series such a hit.

And he is appearing in Daisy Pulls It Off at Lichfield’s Garrick Theatre with another familiar face from a popular 1980s series, Kim Hartman, who played Helga Geerhart, the glamorous German in wartime sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo.

It is now six years since he left The Bill, but Ben is still in touch with many of his former co-stars, who he meets up with from time to time.

“It is now 20 years since I started in The Bill, and it seems like a very long time ago - it is like meeting up with your old school friends.”

Ben, who speaks much more slowly, in a much more relaxed fashion than his alter ego, says while he enjoyed playing Conway, he was not a character he particularly admired.

“He was a big of a twit, wasn’t he? A bit of a loser. He always fought to get promoted, but it never happened for him, and he would get a bit disgruntled.”

But he says it was Conway’s uptight personality, and his frequent clashes with his boss, that made him such fun to play. He loves the scene when Conway was searching the station for illicit stashes of booze, only to be caught holding a pair of Inspector Christine Frazer’s knickers which he had found in her filing cabinet, and he is fond of another episode where Brownlow took the senior officers on a team-building adventure weekend, only for him to fall flat on his back in a ditch.

“I think the character of Conway went down the pan when Brownlow left,” he says.

For much of his time at Sun Hill, Conway’s right-hand man was the stern Inspector Andrew Monroe, and Ben remains good friends with his former colleague, who he says has little in common with his dour on-screen portrayal.

“He’s not dark and serious at all,” he says.

“He was a teacher before he was an actor, and I think he is doing a bit of teaching between jobs now.”

But one actor who does bear some resemblance to his former character is Chris Ellison, who became something of a legend as the hard-bitten detective Frank Burnside.

“Chris is a lovely guy, and he was a bit like his character. He was always a bit of a hard-man.”

Now 58, Ben plays a very different role in Daisy Pulls It Off, appearing as the eccentric Russian piano teacher Mr Scoblowski. And his boss, Miss Gibson, is certainly more glamorous than stuffy old Mr Brownlow.

Kim, who spent 10 years as Colonel Kurt Von Strohm’s blonde secretary Helga in the hit farce set in occupied France, says she finds it much more enjoyable watching repeats of ‘Allo ‘Allo now than she did when it was first screened.

“I used to hate watching it, and I would be terribly critical. I would think ‘why did I pull a face like that’, or ‘I could have made more of that’, but 20 years on I watch it and often see bits I don’t remember having done, and I enjoy it much more.”

Like Ben, she has kept in touch with many of her former co-stars, and says she remembers how difficult it used to be keeping a straight face when in scenes with Richard Gibson, who played the humourless Gestapo officer Herr Flick.

“We were both playing these very serious characters, and the scriptwriters had written these really funny lines for us to say. Sometimes we used to be crying with laughter.”

The 53-year-old, who recently moved back to Stratford-upon-Avon, where she spent her childhood, always knew she wanted to work in theatre after being taken to see the Royal Shakespeare Company by her mother as a child.

“I would go to the Royal Shakespeare and see all the great actors. I loved the sets and the scenery,” she says. “I wanted to be a scenic artist to start with, and sometimes I wish I could do that as well, but I suppose that’s not possible.”

* Daisy Pulls It Off runs at Lichfield Garrick Theatre from Tuesday to Saturday, with performances at 7.30 every night.