CORRIE ON WORKING
I was a Street regular for 5yrs but took a job waiting tables when I left... I have kids to feed
Charlie Condou
LIKE many a famous actor, Charlie Condou has also known lean times.
The star who became a household name in Coronation Street returns to screens as a surgeon in Holby City this month.
Yet he always remembers how the work once dried up so much that he took a job as a waiter in a restaurant to make ends meet.
And he insists it is something to be proud of – not embarrassed about.
Charlie said: “I had a few years of it being really good after I left Coronation Street and then it went a bit quiet for a few months so I got a job working in a restaurant.
“That’s what responsible adults do. I’ve got a young family and I’d much rather be bringing in money to take care of my kids and pay the bills than not.
“I was lucky. I had a friend who had a restaurant and I said, ‘Can I come and do some shifts and work for you?’
“I worked as a waiter for a month or so and people recognised me all the time.
“Somebody said to me, ‘Ooh, aren’t you embarrassed?’ I thought, no, because I don’t really consider being a waiter a less of a job than being an actor.
“You get paid less and it’s harder work but there’s nothing about it that’s inferior.”
Charlie, who played midwife Marcus Dent in Corrie for five years, is happy to talk of the experience, which highlights the precarious nature of acting as a livelihood.
His story echoes that of Katie Jarvis, who played Hayley Slater in Eastenders and worked as a shop security guard in East London when her stint ended.
Thrilled
Charlie said: “Around 95 per cent of actors are unemployed at any one time. I think it’s important for people to know that.
“With social media everybody posts the best bits of their life and you often compare yourself with other people.
“Even I do it. I’ll look at other actors and think, ‘They’re always working.’ I have friends that think my life is a certain way but I think it’s really important to be honest.
Talking of Katie Jarvis, he said: “She has two young kids and needed to make some money. I’ve been in the same situation and there’s really nothing wrong with that.”
Since leaving Corrie five years ago, Charlie, 46, has worked in theatre and appeared in the 2015 US TV mini-series You, Me and the Apocalypse plus ITV crime drama Unforgotten in 2017.
Now he is thrilled to be joining Holby. He said: “I’ve wanted to be in Holby for ages. I’ve pestered them for a couple of years.
“I sent a letter to the executive producer saying I loved the show and that I wanted to be involved and asking them to think of me if anything came up that might be suitable. They kept me in mind and this part came up and they made the offer, which was nice.”
As locum surgeon Ben
Sherwood, Charlie is expecting to ruffle the feathers of the regular
Holby General staff.
He said: “He’s quite rich – he’s come from the private sector – so he can be a bit flash with his money, but underneath it he’s a nice guy.
“He takes a shine to one of the nurses on the ward pretty quickly. He likes to think of himself as a bit of a ladies’ man but he’s actually quite nervous and awkward and certainly in the first couple of episodes he puts his foot in it quite a lot.”
An added appeal of the role is that the show is filmed at the BBC’S Elstree Studios, just a 45-minute drive from the North London home Charlie shares with his writer husband Cameron Laux and his two children Georgia, ten, and Hal, seven.
It means he that can be home most evenings for the children’s bedtime. “Being a dad was always important to me, ever since I was 13,” he said.
“When I realised that I was gay and that being a parent was going to be difficult for me I knew that I was going to have to figure a way of doing it. It wasn’t going to happen the way it happens for most people.”
It was after Charlie met Cameron that he began to contemplate fatherhood more seriously. A friend, the actress Catherine Kanter, was single and also wanted to start a family. After discussing the issue at length they decided to begin IVF treatment.
Georgia and Hal now spend half their time with Charlie and Cameron and the other half with Catherine, who lives close by.
“They call me dad, they call Catherine mum and they call Cameron Wawa, because Georgia was going to call him Papa when she
was little but she couldn’t say it and it’s just stuck. Now a lot of the children’s friends call him Wawa too.”
Warm, cheerful and friendly, Charlie says he feels incredibly lucky at the way things have panned out.“it’s been amazing and the kids are perfectly happy to go between the two houses.
“We had them last night because Catherine had to be somewhere. Instead of getting a babysitter she asked if we would take them. We’ll always do that because they’re our kids.
And she’ll do the same for us.
“Sometimes Cameron and I want to go away for a couple of days and Catherine will take them. We live five minutes around the corner from each other and it works well.”
Even in today’s more enlightened times, not everyone supports the idea of samesex couples raising families, but Charlie is adamant that the three of them are doing the best that they can.
“There are some gay parents that absolutely get it wrong but then there are some straight parents that get it wrong as well,” he said.
“The whole argument that a kid needs a mum and a dad doesn’t take into account single parent families or adoptive kids that have been in care. There are so many situations that are difficult.
“To be honest I’m so focused on bringing up responsible, kind, loving, thoughtful children, that I don’t have time to worry about what other people think.
“I hope I’m doing a good job. I make mistakes as most parents do and I’m constantly racked by guilt that I’m getting it wrong But I look at my kids and they’re really great, so I think we’re doing all right.”
The need to spend more time with his children was behind his decision to quit the cobbles, which is filmed 200 miles away from his home.
“I pursued being a dad for such a long time that when it happened I threw myself into it completely, which is why I gave up my job at Coronation Street. It was a wonderful job that I loved, but I wanted to be the best dad I could be. “I was missing out, my kids were missing out and my partner was missing out.
“I’d always worked before Corrie so I wasn’t worried about not working afterwards.
“They were really nice when I said I wanted to leave. They said the door was open and they weren’t killing me off. I would consider going back if the option came up.”
Being gay meant becoming a parent was going
to be difficult
Holby City, BBC1 8pm Tuesdays.