Actor Tom Conti chats to Yours

Actor TOM CONTI (77) chats to Yours about the perils of being an actor and how he almost became a doctor!

I love being a granddad

I am a very indulgent grandfather to my two grandsons aged 15 and eight. Their mum – our daughter Nina (Tom is married to actress Kara Wilson) – is a professional ventriloquist and comedian and she works away quite a lot. When she’s away performing, the boys often come to stay with us. It’s lovely that we get to see so much of them.

Fame is a modern sickness

I wouldn’t like to be starting out as an actor today. It was hard years ago but I think it must be hell now.

When I started acting, I served a kind of apprenticeship in repertory theatre where you did a different production every two weeks. Fame had absolutely nothing to do with it – you just wanted to act and were fascinated by the craft. I feel that wanting to be famous is a kind of modern sickness. We tried to dissuade Nina from becoming a performer and as a teenager she shadowed a lawyer to see if that suited her, but she hated it. We couldn’t be prouder of Nina and her success. I know I’m biased but she is a bit of a comic genius and doesn’t use a script.

I’m a big fan of Martin Clunes!

I think he’s terrific, so when I was offered a part in the ninth series of Doc Martin, it wasn’t hard for me to say yes – even though I don’t do much of that kind of TV work. I play a character called Bernard Newton who is also a doctor. He was Doc Martin’s mentor.

The role that changed my life

Many years ago, I almost became a doctor myself. Things were not going well for me in theatre business, and my wife Kara and I had decided, after six years of marriage, to have a child.

Kara became pregnant and I was filled with panic at the prospect of having to provide for a child. I was up for an acting job with Paul Schofield who had won an Oscar for his role in the film A Man for All Seasons. If I didn’t get the role, it was decided that I would stop acting and become a mature medical student instead. Fortunately, I got the part and the rest is history. I feel that many lives have been spared as a result!

I’ve been very lucky

Luck has so much to do with acting and this profession has been so incredibly kind to me.

I am one of the lucky few. There are so many actors but only a few hundred in work on any one day.

It’s a lousy job unless you are one of the very few. Actors live in this sort of despairing hope. You think, one day things will change, but they rarely do. Or somebody will get a decent part and nothing comes from it.

Writing is a passion

In addition to acting, I also write fiction, but I don’t find this to be a solitary occupation even though I’m on my own when I write. My head is filled with my characters and I’m surrounded by them all the time. We’re constantly having conversations – once I’ve stopped sharpening pencils and actually get down to the process of writing, that is!

■ Doc Martin series nine is now available on DVD and Blu Ray, rrp £16.99

■ Tom was speaking to Alison James