Interview: Danny McCall - When I asked Michelle Collins to marry me, she laughed in my face; Danny McCall on why he's destined to stay just good friends with the woman of his dreams.
He has a posh pad in London's Belgravia, numbers Chris Evans among his friends, moves in trendy circles, and still has the good looks that made him a pin-up in his Brookside days. So how could Michelle Collins turn down a man like Danny McCall? Quite easily..."I love Michelle. I asked her to marry me but she just laughed in my face," says Danny, 32, who is back on our screens this month in The Bill. "I've always loved her and she knows it. I could be happy with someone like Michelle.
"I love her mum and dad, Mary and Sid, too. I've got a ready-made set of in-laws there, but she is currently going out with my mate Mark, who was a cameraman on Brookside. I keep telling him to look after her. All I've ever wanted is for her to be happy.
"If she ever said yes, I'd go for it. I've asked her to marry me a few times over the years but she never takes me seriously. I got drunk one night and declared my undying love. And she just laughed and told me to get lost. I think she loves me really. She turned up on my arm at the premiere of my film Swing last year, so I was thrilled.
"We've known each other for years. We used to do personal appearances together when I was on Brookside and she was in EastEnders. Our birthdays are very close - mine is June 29 and hers is the week before - so we always celebrate together. She is the kind of woman I could see myself ending up with. We'll probably end up on a beach when we're 60 with no teeth, reminiscing about the old days."
If his jokey vision of the future makes him sound like an old romantic it's a surprise to discover that in the past four years Danny has not had a serious relationship.
"I've been out on the odd date but I can't pull to save my life," he says with a wry grin. "I think I frighten women away because I'm too over the top. When I really like someone I'm too intense. I can't stand playing games. I have a gregarious, flamboyant image but deep down I'm quite a shy, insecure bloke.
"I'm also full-on when I go out which must be hard for anyone I'm with because I come across as some kind of performing monkey, always playing for laughs.
"But I don't have one-night stands," he continues, then adds with a laugh, "Who'd have me, the state I get myself in? I can't even get home, let alone anything else! And I've not had any celebrity dates. Chris Evans tried to set me up with Geri Halliwell - he thought we'd be well-suited - but what did he do but go and pinch her for himself? I didn't give him any stick about it, I thought it was funny. It was all a publicity stunt anyway. And now she is happy with Robbie Williams."
Danny blames the end of his six-year relationship with former Brookside co-star Rachel Lindsay, 28 (who played his alcoholic wife Sammy) for making him wary of getting involved again. They split up in 1996.
"I'm happy on my own at the moment," he insists. "I had six years of henpecked-dom. It's nice to be your own person again and not have anyone to answer to, but I can't pretend that it doesn't get lonely sometimes. I haven't seen Rachel for many years, we have no contact at all now. It's sad because I was close to her family too but she's got her life and I've got mine."
Things have not always been easy for Danny in the seven years since he quit Brookside. As Owen he was the clean-cut, boy-next-door type involved in a rocky romance with Sammy. When she got pregnant he married her and even gave up his studies, taking menial jobs to support his family.
"To this day, I'm still recognised as Owen," he says with a sigh. "All the repeats are shown on Sky and I must meet everyone who watches Sky every time I walk out the door. You can never get away from it."
Later this month, when he makes his small screen comeback in a three-part Bill special, as villain Peter Burton, he hopes to lay the ghost of Owen to rest.
"After years of playing the good guy, it's nice to play a nasty piece of work," he says, pouring a glass of white wine. "Peter is a racist who is involved in money-laundering for a Chinese family. When I left Brookside, I said I'd never do another long-running show again, but I'm glad I changed my mind because doing The Bill was a great laugh."
Although he has had career successes, including a lead role in the Channel 4 drama The Beat Goes On, co-starring with Lisa Stansfield in the British movie Swing, and playing Billy Fury in the West End musical The Sound Of Fury, there have been disappointments too. He was screen-tested by Alan Parker to play Madonna's brother in Evita and by Stanley Kubrick for Eyes Wide Shut, but narrowly missed out on both. And at times the acting dried up completely.
"I've not had that long a spell out of work," he insists. "I've been fussy - I didn't want to do another soap. I've done voiceovers and tried my hand at scriptwriting. Brookside was so popular and the exposure I had on it impeded me a little. I was pigeonholed as a Liverpool actor and I wasn't considered for roles with other accents. That got me down more than anything because I can do lots of voices, but people just saw me as a Scouser. Still I've always got by and kept busy."
However, the knockbacks dented his self-confidence and at one time he questioned his desire to act.
"I went through a phase of not wanting to do it any more," he admits, lighting a cigarette. "I went a bit wild a few years ago and rebelled against it. I wasn't getting hammered every night, I just lost interest. My heart wasn't in anything.
"I even went to pull pints in my local - The Nag's Head in Belgravia - but I only lasted five minutes. It was all a bit of a joke. It was New Year's Eve and the landlord was sick. I was in the pub anyway so I offered to help out. But some reporters were there and a couple of days later there was a phonecall asking if I was a down-and-out barman. It was hysterical. I was just helping out, I didn't even get paid. I was no good at it anyway so they didn't want me back."
Between jobs, Danny also worked for Chris Evans' Ginger Productions. The pair, who have been close friends since Chris was a DJ at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, share a wicked sense of humour.
"The deal was that if any acting roles came up, I could go and do them, so I had the best of both worlds," he recalls. "I loved working there, it was a good discipline to get up and go to an office. I was responsible for all the fat lookalikes and ugly blokes on TFI Friday.
"We've been mates for years. I've even spent Christmas with Chris and his mum Minnie. He and I love Christmas - he once took me Christmas shopping and bought me a fantastic Donna Karan jacket. We'd parked his Bentley outside the shop and bumped into Elton John, who'd parked in front of us. Chris calls out to Elton, 'I've got a present for you', and gave him a box of 24 Budweisers out of the boot. Poor Elton can't drink but he saw the funny side and we all stood there laughing in the street.
"Chris knows all my favourite bars and sometimes he'll take me out on a crawl around them and we end up in a heap somewhere. He gets a lot of stick but he's a great mate and a generous man."
Last year, when Danny's friend, 44-year-old producer Nessa O'Neill was seriously ill with breast cancer, it prompted him to take stock of his own life and make some changes.
"I spent a lot of time with Nessa during her illness and it put everything that I'd been feeling into perspective," he says. "When I look at how many ex-soap actors there are who aren't doing that much, I realise how lucky I am."
Following his stint on The Bill, Danny has plenty of work lined up. He has an open invitation from BBC director of programmes Mal Young to appear in a series of drama projects over the next three years, plus the promise of a lead role in a TV cop show called Baxter. And he is tipped to star in the movie version of The Sound Of Fury.
"I work every day, whether it's TV stuff or voiceovers, and I'm much more disciplined these days. From Monday to Friday, I know I can't go out and get wrecked.
"It's only at weekends that I fall off my perch. I've done stage, musicals, presenting work and film. People tell me I should be a huge star by now, but I feel really fortunate just to be working."
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
|---|---|
| Author: | Hockney, Karen |
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Aug 12, 2000 |
| Words: | 1565 |
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