Wine, dine & lyin’
Nico Panagio reveals how detective Marco woos Felicity, the very woman he’s unknowingly chasing after.
It’s easy to see why Felicity (Maryanne Barlow) has fallen for Detective Marco Andino (Survivor South Africa host Nico Panagio). He’s got brooding good looks, he’s charming, he’s rough around the edges but also knows how to treat a lady. “Meeting Felicity was a wildly unanticipated eventuality that has thrown a serious curveball at his mission,” explains Nico. “Felicity is used to people around her that she can’t trust, so her first response is to distrust his motives, but he soon works his way into her heart.” Will romance get in the way of Marco finding the people who killed his cousin cousin Darren (Gustav Gerderner), who saw Dineo push Felicity off the building? “He will pursue this at any cost,” warns Nico.
WOOL OVER THE EYES
Marco and Felicity’s first meeting saw them having what they thought was a hotel hook-up one-night-stand but it’s developed. “They’re equally surprised that it (their hook-up) has led to something substantial. This comes at a time in Felicity’s life when she is desperate for something good and effortless – and it comes in the form of Marco,” explains Nico. But the closer Marco and Felicity get, the more Felicity’s stepmom and murder partner Dineo (Kgomotso Christopher) worries, reveals Nico, who made his soap name as businessman George Kyriakis on 7de Laan (see p29) from 2002 to 2007. “When Marco works on a case, he uses methods and skills that have been honed over time. Not sharing too much info is how cops are trained to operate. He goes into hunter mode and he’s ruthless. This is going to lead him to a place he could never have imagined, but it won’t slow his resolve.” Whether he’s ready to learn that his lover is partly to blame for his dead cousin is another story…
JUST VISITING?
While Nico has finished filming in Joburg and is home in Cape Town, his character isn’t done with the Price family just yet. “Legacy’s writing team did a great job creating a character who is able to come and go. If all goes well, I look forward to many more visits to the intriguing world of the Price family,” says Nico, who says that soapies are very different to a reality show like Survivor. “Nothing is easy and soaps require a particular mindset and a different type of prep work. But slipping back into soap mode is easy,” says Nico.