TROLLEY LOAD OF LAUGHS!
blade runner’s RUTGER HAUER on his new role in a hospital-set comedy
COMEDY Dave, 10pm/dave+1, 11pm Rutger Hauer and Eastenders’ Jo Joyner are among the cast of a hospital-set comedy about a porter (Ed Easton) with dreams of becoming a doctor one day.
BY HIS OWN ADMISSION, Rutger Hauer isn’t the first name you’d associate with a British sitcom. After all, the 73-year-old Dutch actor is bestknown for his weird, often menacing roles, in films such as Blade Runner.
But this week Hauer stars in Porters, a new medical comedy written by Dan Sefton, whose TV credits include the recent Trust Me.
ROLLING ALONG
As a former hospital porter, Sefton drew on his own experiences for the three-parter, which follows the porters at the fictional St Ethelreda’s as they deal with the worst aspects of hospital life.
‘The porters do all the crappy jobs that keep the hospital running, trying to help the sick, the whining, the sad and lonely. My character’s like Mother Teresa,’ says Hauer, who plays Tillman, a former pro-golfer who is one of three porters at the hospital.
‘Usually, the characters I’m offered tend to be wicked or wacky, but I love playing the clown,’ he says. ‘The writing on Porters is silly, crazy and fast. I giggled so much when it came to reading the first scripts, but when it came to the first day of filming, I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. My teeth were chattering!’
TEAM SPIRIT
Tillman and fellow porter Frankie (Susan Wokoma) soon strike up a friendship with new arrival Simon (Edward Easton), as they join forces to deal with the battlehardened Dr Kelly (Jo Joyner) and cheeky surgeon Dr Pradeep (Sanjeev Bhaskar).
‘Simon has aspirations above his station – he thinks he can become a doctor,’ says Easton. ‘However, it takes loads of work to become a doctor and he’s not willing to put in any effort.’
This week, a mix-up forces Simon to pretend to be a real doctor in front of a consultant, played by guest star Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame.
‘It was totally insane,’ says Easton. ‘Kelsey had to leave quickly. So I had to act opposite a man in a beard and wig playing his part!’