I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF BEING A NERD; Why Nigel is quitting Albert Square.
EastEnders nerdy Nigel Bates is quitting Albert Square because he doesn't want to be typecast as a lovable loser.I'm told Paul Bradley, 38, has stunned BBC bosses by turning his back on the pounds 80,000-a-year job.
He is the third senior cast member to quit in two months, and his decision has caused a crisis among producers.
Jacqueline Leonard - Lorraine Wicks - and Paul Nicholls, 18, who plays her troubled screen son Joe, are also leaving.
Bradley says: "I have made a decision about leaving EastEnders and I have told the BBC about it. I know it is regular work and you are in the public eye, but it is time to move on.
"Much as I love playing Nigel, I would not like people to think that was all I did. I did a lot of work before EastEnders and I will after. I don't want to be like some people who've been in Coronation Street for 20 years - I'm much too restless."
Curly-haired Paul was originally hired for just one episode five years ago. But he stayed, and Nigel, with his awful ties, quickly became a firm favourite as Walford's village idiot.
He is one of the soap's few comedy characters, and his knockabout screen relationship with hardman Grant Mitchell, played by Ross Kemp, is popular with fans.
But it's not all been a bundle of laughs for Nigel. His wife Debs died soon after their wedding and he had to fight a bitter custody battle for her daughter Clare.
A BBC insider tells me: "It's a real blow that Paul wants to go, but we hope that he doesn't close the door altogether. It's very worrying that so much of the top talent is wanting out of Albert Square."
In real life, Paul lives with theatre director Lynn Nelson and their two young children.
He will bow out at Christmas before playing Buttons in the pantomime Cinderella in Croydon, South-West London.
"The first thing I'm going to do is tour in a play for a friend," he said. "It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. But after that nothing's planned, although I want to do comedy very much."
Look who we've got ear, Lard..
I've never been so embarrassed - and Radio 1 stars Mark Radcliffe and Marc "Lard" Riley were to blame.
After I spent a wild night with the pair in a top restaurant, the DJs played a prank on me yesterday live on their brilliant breakfast show.
First I was cruelly dubbed "Wingnut" because they claim my ears are bigger than Dumbo's. Then I was made to wear a ridiculous green cap and dance like a pixie with fans of the show on the streets of Manchester.
Earlier, Mark had shouted: "Will you look at those lugs, Lard - they're like a giant wingnut. That's what we're going to call you from now on, Matthew - Wingnut."
The two pals were clearly smarting from my digs at their plans to open this month's Glastonbury festival.
They have formed a new band, The Shire Horses, and have been rehearsing secretly- in Radcliffe's garden shed.
Oasis star Noel Gallagher is being spied on by stunning Zoe Ball. "My flat window overlooks their house," she says.
"They've had some noisy parties, but no one has the guts to yell, `Noel, turn that music down!'"
U2 looked right lemons when they were rehearsing for their PopMart world tour. I'm told Bono and the boys were stuck for 20 minutes inside the massive glitter-ball lemon that's part of their stage show - and the Edge's trousers started
to melt.
EVANS' STERN LESSON IN THE FACTS OF WIFE
American shock jock Howard Stern planned to humiliate Chris Evans by snogging the Ginger Whinger's ex-wife.
Stern, in Britain to promote his movie Private Parts, met Carol McGiffin just hours before he was due to appear on Evans' TFI show. He invited her to come with him but aides warned him off.
Stern said: "I was going to fondle her in front of his face."
On the show Stern told Evans: "Carol's spruced herself up since she left you." Evans bitched: "Things have changed, then."
He later moaned: "She won't give me a divorce. You're the first person she has said she's my ex-wife to. She obviously wants you."
FATHER Ted actress Pauline McLynn, who plays scatty Mrs Doyle in the C4 sitcom, is a real pro.
Pauline was once treading the boards in an Alan Ayckbourn play when she suddenly felt ill.
But, she tells Bizarre magazine, instead of dashing into the wings, she was sick into a dog basket which was lying in the middle of the stage.
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
|---|---|
| Author: | Wright, Matthew |
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Jun 14, 1997 |
| Words: | 778 |
| Previous Article: | BATTLER PADRAIG. |
| Next Article: | For valour. |