Twink set me on fire during a play...lucky I didn’t wear a nylon shirt
Fair City romeo Bela star retires
further. He said: “There was so much leading up to them getting married... they didn’t do an awful lot after. “I thought they’d write in little tiffs of the married couple. “Bela had a wheelchair and a pushchair – I was hoping they’d build up a couple of stories.” Jim got plenty of fan mail during his 33 years playing Bela, who he noted was “the second longest standing character” after Tony Tormey, played by Paul Brennan. He revealed: “I’d meet mothers and they’d tell me their teenage daughters fancied me and then it would be them. “Then years later the youngsters would come up and say, ‘My mammy used to fancy you’ and now it’s, ‘My granny loves you’.” Jim had his share of acting gigs on the big screen, starring opposite Pierce Brosnan in Taffin in 1988. He said “I was a baddie and I beat the crap out of the future James Bond. Pierce was very easy [to work with].” Jim also had cameo roles in BBC drama Cars, then ITV’S Coronation Street and The Bill. But he found he got homesick while starring in the Weatherfield soap. He revealed: “You were on your own in Manchester and didn’t know anyone from the cast, so when people came over to work on Fair City I’d make sure to meet them for a pint. In Tolka Row, his character Sean got engaged to Brenda Fricker’s character, something they used to their advantage to get into a party at the Gaiety Theatre. Jim said: “Brenda and I walked out together, we were just good friends. I was doing the play Juno and the Peacock in 1966 with Peter O’toole and Sean Mckenna. “Only wives and fiances could go to the party. “So the two of us got engaged. I gave her a little gold ring but we were never romantic. We don’t stay in touch... I must ring her.” Jim said it was “a shame” that Fair City is being cut from four nights to three as part of RTE’S bid to cut costs. But he said he had no regrets over quitting the soap due to ill health. He revealed: “I’ve got peripheral neuropathy which affects the legs and feet, the nerves and the face. “So that limits your mobility severely. I have a transit chair and [my partner] Helen pushes me around. “I go for injections once a month... I can still lift a pint which is the main thing.”