The Street
Timothy Spall plays Eddie
Timothy Spall and Ger Ryan who play the downtrodden cab driver Eddie and his long-suffering wife Margie are the only actors from the first series of The Street who are returning for the second.
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But Timothy, one of our best-loved actors, needed no second invitation to come back. The 50-year-old couldn't wait to inhabit the character of the put-upon Eddie once again. In this series, Eddie dallies with an old flame called Pat.
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In a drunken attempt to impress her, he pays way over the odds for a set of signed snooker balls at a charity auction and in the process puts himself in dire financial straits. To make matters worse, the morning after he fails a breathalyser test and loses his licence and his job. All the while, he is ignorant of the terrible secret that is gnawing away at Margie.
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Timothy, who has also headlined in such well-regarded dramas as Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Harry Potter, Secrets And Lies, All Or Nothing, Shooting The Past, Cherished, Topsy-Turvy and Pierrepoint, had no hesitation about rejoining the multi-award winning production.
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"As soon as I read the scripts for the first series, I knew that The Street was something quite remarkable," enthuses the actor, who will be making another appearance in a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One drama as Fagin in Oliver Twist.
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"I thought it was fresh and new and in the best sense old-fashioned. It highlights what we do best in British TV drama: write about the everyday in a very poetic way. Jimmy McGovern is one of the best purveyors of that form. He succeeds in conjuring up a very clever, lyrical look at daily life without losing any of the grit."
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Timothy outlines what drew him to the character of Eddie, who is one of life's losers. "He's a fool to himself," says the actor, who is also starring in A Room With A View (opposite his son, Rafe); Tim Burton's new version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet, alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter; and Enchanted, a new part-animated Disney fairytale set in New York, with Amy Adams and Susan Sarandon.
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"Eddie's someone who wears his heart on his sleeve and can't help helping people. He's a bit of a pushover. He's basically a good guy, but he doesn't have much to back it up with."
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In this episode, continues Timothy, "Eddie has made a huge mistake by seeing his old sweetheart. He's heading straight for a brick wall, but like all the best tragicomic characters, he just can't see it coming."
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Timothy reflects that, "Eddie is ultimately a figure of benignity. There's something I really like about him. He represents decency in what we like to call the ordinary man.
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"Having worked with Mike Leigh and others, I get asked to play this kind of character a lot. The decency of ordinary people and the tragicomedy of ordinary life are things that will always be with us and will always fascinate us. I relish it when great writers like Jimmy capture it."
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The actor, who also pops up driving his cab in two other episodes of this series of The Street, is reluctant to give the ending away of his instalment. He will reveal, however, that he finds Eddie's journey deeply moving.
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"It's such a touching tale. It's a really lovely story to go along with for an hour. At times, it's unbearably sad, but it also has a fundamentally optimistic take. As is always the case with Jimmy McGovern, it's a beautifully written piece."
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