Gerard: A voice of his own

Current work includes one TV and one radio soap – both institutions – a serialisation of a gothic classic and what is probably the biggest radio drama project of this century so far. Gerard McDermott talks to Ian Macrae about why he’s happier being someone else

Make no mistake, this is a man who loves to perform.

No sooner have we sat down in one of the many pubs in the streets surrounding BBC Broadcasting House in London’s West End, than Gerard McDermott pulls from his pocket the script he’s just been reading for a show starring Steve Punt. It’s predicated on the notion of Punt as a kind of spy: “I’m the sort of M figure”, says Gerard before reading in the hushed, imperious, upper-class tones of the classic British spymaster.

It’s a busy and varied week for the man who’s now on his fourth stint with the BBC’s Radio Drama company – it used to be known as the Radio Rep. We meet ahead of yet another studio session for the mammoth Radio Drama production of Vasily Grossman’s epic Russian novel, Life And Fate; on Tuesday he’s in Birmingham recording The Archers and on Wednesday it’s filming at Elstree, a part in EastEnders which he’s just heard he’s landed. More of all of which anon.

It’s not merely that breaks have been a long time coming – although Gerard points out that the EastEnders casting is probably only his sixth TV audition in 22 years. He’s regarded as having been a late starter in the acting profession, although his ambitions go back a long way.

“From about the age of 14 I always wanted to be an actor. And it was seeing Please Sir and Steptoe and Son on the telly. It was also the radio. But coming from a working class northern catholic family, it was just unheard of. I might as well have said that I wanted to be an astronaut.

“Later I’d have to have about ten pints and probably a couple of whiskies before I’d even admit that I wanted to be an actor. It was like coming out as gay or something.”

So he followed his father into the painting and decorating trade, working for the local council. But this proved an ill-advised choice of career for a partially sighted young man.

“I should never have been a painter”, he laughs. “I could never see what I was doing. Emulsioning ceilings was my real hatred. The first coat was ok, painting over the yellow nicotined plaster, but with the second coat I couldn’t tell where I was going.”

By his early 30s, he was still painting – although he’d now graduated from ceilings to windows. But the performer in him definitely wanted out.

“I was painting this council house window and thinking, a three year drama course? That would be crazy. I’d be almost in my 40s by the time I’d finished. It was a crazy idea.

“Then I thought, wait a minute, if I don’t do anything, I might end up painting this same window. I might be coming back in four years time and painting this same bloody window”.

By this time, Gerard had met Gibby Keys, a Glaswegian woman who was working in community theatre in Scarborough. She coached, coaxed and cajoled him, rehearsing his audition speeches from Pinter and Shakespeare and advising him on which colleges to apply to. Eventually he was offered a place at Cardiff.

But in making the move from building site to stage, studio and TV location, Gerard has not totally left his former life behind and he remains very grounded.

“I think my family really bring me back,” he says. “And it’s not always that positive for me. They can almost seem disinterested. My brother and sister are almost deliberately disinterested in what I do so that I don’t get above myself. So I suppose I bring that level-headedness from my working class background.”

And that sense of practicality pervades his work and informs his approach to it.

“Radio is a craft, that’s what it is for me. My dad was a painter and decorator, but he was a proper old painter and decorator. And then my brother’s a carpenter, so I’ve got that craft in my background and I see my work as an extension of that.”

If there is no real answer for him to the question why acting, at least his love of and commitment to radio drama is maybe easier to pin down.

“I discovered Radio 4 when I was about eighteen”, he remembers.

“I got fed up of listening to Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and people like Little Jimmy Osmond on Radio 1. And before I threw the radio at the wall, I re-tuned to Radio 4 and there was a play in the afternoon, and there was a classic serial, and there was someone reading The Hobbit and there was A Book At Bedtime. And ever since then I’ve listened to Radio 4.”

And now, here he is, called upon for a second time to take an occasional role in The Archers, a real Radio 4 institution. How does that feel?

“The first thing I did when I was offered a tiny tiny part in The Archers was contact my mother-in-law. I have to say, she’s a massive fan. That signature tune” – he sings that jauntily familiar melody – “is a cue for her to turn the radio up!

“It was great fun. Most of my scenes were with Charles Collingwood [who plays farmer Brian Aldridge]. He’s a bit of a joker and very easy to work with. He’s one of my favourite actors on there.

“I’m playing Cliff the site manager, and bones are discovered on the site of the new Market being built in Borchester.”

The main difference between radio and other types of drama production is that actors don’t learn their lines. They read scripts because, of course, no one can see them doing it. Most actors see this as a real boon, no need to learn and remember lines and get them right in performance. But for someone with Gerard’s limited degree of sight, which has got worse over the years, it presents a real challenge. But this is something for which he is determined to take personal responsibility for getting right.

“I’ve always been a real stickler for taking that on myself. And I’ve always, borderline, just been able to manage. Initially I used to scan each page and then I would re-format that into 20 point bold print. I now use 30 point Arial bold – sounds like a washing powder. Then the BBC used to send me floppy disks, remember those? And now I get scripts by email.

“I really rehearse a lot, at home, on the train, sitting in the loo. I’m almost learn­ing the script, so I’m working ten times harder than most other radio actors.”

As a member of the Radio Drama company, Gerard may get to play a number of different characters in any one production. That’s particularly true of the current big project, Life and Fate whose action is set in and around the Battle of Stalingrad. And that suits Gerard just fine.

“I’ve always liked using my voice and creating voices and characters. Mel Blanc was one of my favourite voice artists and I loved people like Phil Harris and Louis Prima.

“Even now I have a problem working with my own voice. I don’t think I’m really acting unless I’m putting on an accent.”

Life and Fate, which will be broadcast across every Radio 4 drama slot (except for the sacred Archers ones) during one week in September has meant that Gerard has been working with the likes of Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant and veteran acting legends like Philip Maddock.

But keeping such elevated company does not make him yearn for the possibility of his career being shaped differently. He believes his own life and fate remain governed by a mixture of choice and happenstance.

“Everything can turn on a sixpence. Just this morning I’ve been offered one episode of EastEnders. Turns out this character is a local character, so my whole life could just turn around.

“You keep coming to these crossroads, and you decide to make a left turn and go and do the pantomime in Colchester with Finetime Fontaine and your whole career can pivot on that one decision which you make on that day.”

And with that he’s off on a tale of how during that panto a routine evolved between him and another actor. Gerard’s telling of it takes in their cross-talk a la Cannon and Ball, ending with an impression of Bob Mortimer’s Churchill Insurance dog and taking in Deryck Guyler’s caretaker character from Please Sir along the way.

Which goes to show. You can’t keep a good performer down.