James Dreyfus(George Sunday/Theroman Season Six - ) James Dreyfus replaced
Ardal O'Hanlon as superhero
Thermoman in the BBC1 series My Hero for its season six. Dreyfus, star of BBC1's Gimme Gimme Gimme and who also starred in Thin Blue Line, is stitched
into the role at the start of the sixth season when Thermoman gambles away his old body during a poker
game.
Dreyfus signed up after
O'Hanlon decided to move on to new projects after five seasons. In addition to several TV comedy credits, Dreyfus has been appearing in the West End show The Producers and has appeared in feature films such as Notting Hill, Fat Slags and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. He also voices Willo the Wisp in the new
version of the animated show (click here for the official web site, www.willothewisp.co.uk). He won a British Comedy Award as Top TV newcomer for his work on Thin Blue Line back in 1996.
Ardal O'Hanlon(George Sunday/Theroman Season One - Five) The star of Father Ted brings the puzzled superhero Thermoman to wonderful life. Ardal O'Hanlon says he doesn't much enjoy wearing Thermoman's lycra suit: "It's a bugger to get on and off," he revealed on the BBC web site (Original link here). "You'd think I'd be used to it after all this time but it still takes me 10 minutes just to get my arms in."
Despite the cocpet of the show - a superhero in suburban Britain, Ardal feels the show isn't really about George being a superhero and all his amazing super powers." They are all incidentals really," he feels. "It's really about this guy trying to figure out the ways of living in a different world and taking the things people say to him just too literally."
"I was never really into superheroes as a child," Ardal reveals. "We weren't allowed to watch much television in our house so I wasn't a television or a movie buff nor were we encouraged to read comic books. My mother fed us books but it was mainly proper classic children's literature like the CS Lewis books. Much later, as a teenager, I saw some of the sixties Batman series, but wasn't particularly enthralled by it. My heroes tended to be footballers, the Pope and JFK."
Ardal grew up in Carrickmacross, Ireland. "I worked in Markeys restaurant when I was about seven," he revealed in an interview for the Carrickmacross web site. "On Saturday mornings, Frank Markey, my brother Rory and myself used to extract peas from their pods in the kitchen, tons of them. We got a pound between us and a bottle of red lemonade each. I think this is true although I can't be sure. Most of my memories usually turn out to be somebody else's memories."
Ardal wrote a novel, The Talk of the Town in 1998. Links: • The World of Ardal O'Hanlon Very informative sites about My Hero's star, with news on current projects and more.
Emily Joyce(Janet Dawkins) Dawkins is faced with the task of explaining the world to her confused alien husband, with varying degrees of success.
From her Official Bio: Born in 1970 and educated in London, Emily trained at the Webber Douglas Academy, graduating in 1991 as a Carleton Hobbs finalist.
She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991, and over the next
two years played in Romeo & Juliet, Tis Pity She's a Whore, Julius
Caesar, King Baby and A Woman Killed with Kindness. Further seasons
with the RSC brought a world tour of Love's Labours Lost, Twelfth Night
and A Christmas Carol, among other theatre work.
In 1995, her first TV job was in Cracker, which led to many roles including Jane Eyre, Casualty, Wycliffe, Grafters, The Glass, Midsomer Murders and My Hero. Also in the can for 2003: the Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Messiah II (shown on BBC1).
Emily has a charming, bubbly personality, reflected in her vocal style. She's proficient at Yorkshire and Manchester accents, and has a lovely singing voice - having spent three years in a pop group - a sure sign of a mis-spent youth!
As a youngster Emily was no great fan of superheroes. "I was never into Batman or anything like that," she says. "I
never wanted to be rescued but instead I wanted to be one of Charlie's
Angels."
At the age of 17, Emily was lead singer of a rock band called In Spite
of All That. "We wrote our own stuff and did gigs all over the place and we actually recorded an album which I've never heard," she
says.
"I was in the band for three years including the time I went to drama school.
I had to make a decision between acting and singing because the music was getting
more serious.
"I chose acting because you can still get parts in EastEnders
when
you are 90 but you can't really be in the pop charts!"
Emily is married to art director Adam Astie. They have a three-year-old son and are expecting a baby in November 2003.
• Read an interview with Emily clearly published during the original
launch of My Hero: www.bbcprograms.com/pbs/catalog/myhero/heroemily.htm
Geraldine McNulty(Mrs Raven) Fan Mail can be sent to: c/o PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street London, WC2B 5HA
The abrasive receptionist at the surgery where Janet works. One of the show's secret weapons!
In addition to My Hero, Geraldine's TV credits include Murder Most Horrid (comedienne Dawn French is one of her best friends), The Lee and Herring Show and The Vicar of Dibley. Recent stage credits include Betty, written by Kathy Burke, at the Vaudeville, London (2002, reviewed here by Amanda Hodges)
Hugh Dennis(Dr Piers Crispin) Astonishingly versatile with credits including
My Hero, Mock the Week, TV to Go,
Spitting Image, Carrott Confidential, The Mary Whitehouse Experience,
You Me & Him, The Punt & Dennis
Show and A Word
in Your Era. Hugh can do most accents
and has a huge wardrobe of character voices as well as having just
the right voice for hard or soft sell. Hugh’s popular radio
shows, The
Now Show and It's Been a Bad
Week and can be heard on BBC Radio 4.
Hugh was a member of the world-famous Cambridge
Footlights in 1983. (More info on members of that group down the years here). "Dr Piers is an self-obsessed, incredibly vain egomaniac with no interest in anything except himself," says Hugh Dennis of his on screen character. "He's
a brilliant part to play!"
In an interview with Express Newspapers, Piers was described as 'a soulless and superficial medic motivated entirely by his quest for celebrity to the detriment of his patients' wellbeing.'
"They say you always play aspects of yourself, but I really hope I'm nothing like him," Hugh
Dennis, the son of the Bishop of Norwich, told the Express before the start of the first season. Piers is inspired more by some of the doctors you see on TV, says Dennis. Unlike his character, Dennis hates the pretension of the celebrity whirlygig. He is perturbed at the prevalence of people like Piers, who use their job as a vehicle for 15 minutes of fame.
"These days there's no profession where you can't be a TV star, even if you're a gardener, doctor or airport baggage handler," he says. "There's
a whole breed of people desperate to be on TV as the defining structure of
their life. Piers represents that and it's terribly scary."
Dennis clearly always wanted the fame his
succesful career has brought him, though. "I
wanted to be a weatherman in the same way
as Piers wants to be a doctor - to be on
the telly. I always wanted to be eminent.
I've always been a show-off."
Lou Hirsch(Arnie) Official web site: Go He also has some great pics from the show here
Birthday: 15 November Plays Thermoman's cousin, a 'retired' superhero, PolarMan, who lost his job because he was corrupt and stole things (when he gets his powers back in one episode he steals the crown jewels).
Lou's official web site includes diary entries about recording the show, as well as many 'screen grab' images from transmitted episodes. Lou Hirsch's numerous credits on stage, TV and screen include voicing Baby Herman in Who Framed Roger Rabbit , We'll Meet Again for London Weekend Television, Angels in America at the Royal National Theatre, Superman III and many more. Check out his official web site, which include pics of him and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation). He has a small part in the feature film, Thunderbirds.
Lil Roughley(Ella Dawkins, Janet's Mum) In addition to My Hero, Lil's numerous film and TV credits include filsm such as Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Brassed Off, with many TV appearances in shows such as Heartbeat, Absolutely Fabulous and the detective drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.
Tim Wylton(Stanley Dawkins) Put-upon Stanley lives in fear of his wife
but is not adverse to the occasional rebellion, which has seen him take refuge
with Tyler in Season Three's Putting on the Writs. Stanley has daydreams
about killing Ella, and is allergic to cats (My Kingdom for a Cat).
Tim's many TV credits include Lucky Jim, Mirrorball, Pride and Prejudice, Whoops Apocalypse and several Shakespeare dramas. He's also appeared in Casualty, French and Saunders and The Darling Buds of May.
Philip Whitchurch(Tyler) Thermoman's next door neighbour, who is either mad or really can speak a smattering of schooloboy Martian and is regularly abducted by aliens. In addition to covering his sofa in bacofoil he has a pet scorpion.
Philip's credits include TV series such as the 1999 version of Treasure Island and appearances in Midsomer Murders, Peak Practice and The Vicar of Dibley. He's also been seen in Sharpe, The Bill, Bergerac and Casualty. Links: Images of Philip as Tyler on this site (and many of his other roles): Go
Guest Stars • Tres Hanley, who played Carol in Season One, has a clip from
the show on her web site: www.treshanley.com/tvclips.html • Pat Kelman, who plays the Ultron postman, has his own official web site at: www.patkelman.com
How to Contact the actors I don't have contact addresses but correspondence
for actors in BBC shows should be sent to:
[Actor Name] [Show Title - in this case, My Hero]
BBC Television Centre
Wood Lane
London
W12 7RJ
UK
Advice on getting autographs:
Many people want to write to actors, often to request autographs
or photographs. Here's some suggestion that might improve
your chances of getting a response
-- but please note, this is not a guarantee of success!
1) Always enclose a Self Addressed Stamped
Envelope (SASE) with any letter, i.e. an envelope with your
name and address already written on it. Of course, this is
easy if you live in the country to which you are writing
-- if you are writing from outside the UK in the case of My
Hero however, there is a solution. You need to buy an International
Reply Coupon from your local post office. These
can be exchanged in a UK post office against a stamp covering
the postal rate (surface single letter, and now air mail letter)
to answer you. This service
has been in operation since 1907.
International reply coupons (IRC) follow rules edited by the Universal Postal
Union (UPU) and may be used almost anywhere in the world.
Make sure the envelope is big enough for a photograph if that's
what you are hoping for. When I edited Doctor Who Magazine
-- yes, at one
time people bizarrely wanted my autograph! -- we occasionally
got self addressed envelopes the size of postage stamps which
were impossible
to get anything into (not that I wanted to traumatise anyone
with a photo of me, anyway).
Self addressed envelopes save actors and their agents both time and money, which
improves the chances of a reply. You might also want to enclose a picture with
your letter for signing. This can be risky -- after all, your letter may well
go missing -- but actors are more likely to take you seriously if you do this.
Make sure the envelope you send your letter in and the SASE are sturdy enough
to ensure the photo is not damaged.
2) Make sure the letter you send is short,
and to the point. People often write too much
and the actor or agent will discard it. They simply don't have
time to read long letters about a fan's life story -- after
all, My Hero gets over eight
million regular viewers and you can just imagine how many fan
letters that might generate. Keep the letter short, say what
you want to say and if you're asking
for an autograph or picture say why you want it, along with
some short comments about their acting. Mention things about
the actors' most recent work. It lets
the actor know you are a real fan and don't just know him because
of
My Hero.
3) Be patient. Busy actors are not only performing or preparing
for a new show, they also have a home life and this means
they don't have a lot of time to reply
to fan letters. Just think how long it takes you to reply to
a letter from a distant Aunt or even the bank manager (actually,
it's probably not a good idea
to not reply to letters from bank managers). Autograph hunters
will tell you that a reply can take as little as one - two
weeks and sometimes as much as
a year! (If you haven't had a reply in a year I'd suggest you
re-send the letter - perhaps it got lost in the post).
4) If you're writing to all the cast of
the show, use the same letter but just change the names. It's
quicker and can be more effective.
5) Ask for any photo or autograph to be
personalised. This will distinguish you from
an autograph dealer, which many actors refuse point blank to
help. Personalised autographs are much cooler, anyway.
See the Show Recorded ClappersTickets organises
free tickets for live TV recordings such as Des
and Mel as well as My
Hero. To book, send
them an E-mail stating the following information:
• Your full name and address where they can send the tickets
to
• Your day time and evening contact telephone numbers
• The name of the show you wish to see
• Show Date and Time
• Number of tickets required PLEASE NOTE: Lou Hirsch tells me he believes that it's normally the policy of television studios not to allow children under the age of 16 in to watch an episode being recorded unless a prior arrangement has been made. "I believe that policy is in place for insurance purposes," says Lou. "I wouldn't want any of our young fans to turn up at the studio only to be turned away at the door because they're too young to be admitted".
