10 years on people still call me Nidge
RTE drama was springboard for Tom’s success
TOM Vaughan Lawlor has told how he still gets called Nidge on the street – a decade on from his seminal role in RTE crime drama Love/hate.
The Dubliner, best known for playing gangland boss Nigel ‘Nidge’ Delaney, is back on screen as a footballer in the Netflix flick A Beautiful Game.
Tom, 46, stars alongside Love Actually legend Bill Nighy playing Kevin, a member of the squad.
Love/hate ran from 2010 to 2014 and is regarded as RTE’S most successful crime drama, with ratings peaking at 970,600 viewers in season four.
Now, 10 years on, Tom told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “People still call me Nidge on the street.
“I look back on it as a very wonderful time and I’m very grateful for it. And I still have great friends from that time.”
The iconic series, created by Stuart Carolan, recently aired on ITV and Channel 5 and is available to stream in the UK on ITV Player and Britbox.
Tom, who lives in Kent with his wife Claire and their two children, admitted: “It’s an amazing thing that people still want to talk about it and are still passionate about it.
“A lot of people are now watching it in England, so it’s kind of strange to get a 10 year delay in appreciation for a job you did but it’s all welcome.”
Tom said he understands why there’s a deep connection with Love/ Hate fans for characters such as Nidge, Fran, Darren and John Boy.
He explained: “I think it’s that thing of what happens with TV shows because you’re a guest in their home every week. People feel a sense of ownership around the characters.
“So I think that kind of familiarity and the connection with those characters and with you as a performer is very intimate.
“You feel a bit like you’re one of them or that there’s a connection there, so I had nothing but special memories from that time.”
Tom said working with The Wire, Queer as Folk and Game of Thrones star Aidan Gillen, who played mob boss John
Boy, was a great training ground.
He revealed: “Before Love/hate I’d had no TV or screen experience. All my acting work had been in the
I had nothing but special memories from that time
theatre, so I didn’t really know anything about screen acting.
“Working with Aiden Gillen was huge in terms of his camera technique and learning from his skill in front of camera was a really great experience.
“Being an actor is such a weird thing – you’re doing a play, then you’re doing a big movie, then you could be doing a radio play.
“It’s a strange kind of wonderful mixture of, playing people from history, playing different nationalities, it’s never boring.”
He added: “Sometimes walking in other people’s shoes I think for me, it’s about getting a greater understanding of life and people’s life view and life experience.
“I’ve been an actor for 20 years, the process of acting and finding a character is still as fascinating to me as it always has been, because it’s a mystery.”
Asked if Love/hate springboarded
I spent more time on the physio table than training. I got injured a few times
his screen career he replied: “Without question it did.
“While we were filming Love/hate there were a few TV jobs I had but fundamentally I suppose it did.
“It gave me an understanding of screen acting that has seen me through to today.
“It gives you a greater relaxation around the camera, and the technique of screen acting, because it’s a very different skill to theatre acting, they’re different requirements.”
For research on his latest role, Tom watched a documentary produced and presented by Colin Farrell – Kicking It – which charted the Ireland team’s journey to the 2007 Homeless World Cup.
He said: “In our film all the teams we play against are the real Homeless World Cup teams.
“Netflix flew all these teams in, the real hundreds of teams. We got kind of a first-hand experience of wonderful football and skill.
“To hear their stories... were kind of mind blowing in terms of the stuff they’ve had to overcome and are still trying to overcome.
“This film is about reminding people that homeless people deserve dignity.”
He revealed he sustained injuries whilst filming: “I hadn’t played in 30 years, but the rest of the team are all guys in their early 20s.
“I had this notion that I could keep up with them but I was corrected very early on where they were leaving you for dust in sprint drills. I spent more time on the physio table than I did in training. I got injured a few times, mostly torn muscle.”
Commenting on the houising crisis in Ireland he said: “I live in Kent, I was back a few weeks ago and I couldn’t believe it.
“It was always a problem but I didn’t realise it was so visible.
“Maybe unfortunately we need to see it more to find a way to figure this thing out because it’s just about trying to give people back their dignity.”
Tom was killed off in the first series of Peaky Blinders so he’s unlikely to get the opportunity to reprise his role for the film.
“They killed me in the first season, Cillian [Murphy, Tommy Shelby] beat me to death,” he said.
“He dragged me out by the feet, I said to the producers ‘I could survive that’, so they might bring me back for the movie in a flashback sequence.”