A Shameless love of home
Pontefract-born actor Jamie Davis has worked with the RSC and appeared in series as diverse as Doc Martin and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. This year he was seen in both the ITV1 drama Switch and Channel 4’s Shameless. He lives in north Londo
What’s your first Yorkshire memory?
I was born in Carleton, which is actually part of Pontefract, and my very first memory is of lying on a blanket, in the garden, and looking up at a big blue expanse of sky. It does occur to me how odd memory is – someone mentions the front room in the house where you grew up, and it is like flicking a switch, you can remember the pattern in the carpet, the colour of the wallpaper, exactly what stood on the mantelpiece. It all comes back in the mind’s eye. What’s your favourite part of the county – and why?
My family still live in and around Carleton and Pontefract, and my wife Lucy and I live in Belsize Park in London (the two places just couldn’t be more different – chalk and cheese), and we just don’t get back as much as we would like to – work gets in the way. So, when I can grab the opportunity, it’s back home I go, and I am so pleased to be there. Whoever first said that “home is where the heart is” had it right, bang on. Do you have a favourite walk – or view?
There’s a place called The Rookeries in Carleton, a hill which we used to walk up when I was younger. I must get up there again when I’m next back, because from up there you can see all three of the schools that I went to, the field where we used to play 24-a-side football until it got dark, every street and corner and where my family lived – and live. Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present, would you like to take for dinner?
An actor turned director, Greg Doran, now the head of the RSC and a really remarkable (and inspirational) man. I was in a play called Days of Significance, which What’s your idea of a perfect day, or a perfect weekend, out in Yorkshire?
Waking up in Badsworth, where my mum Lynne now lives, and pottering with her around the village. Then over to Leeds for a matinee at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and a couple of hours of shopping, before heading home to the Carleton Hotel. All the people that I grew up with will be there and, as my old mate Woody would put it, “we’ll be in there until we’re brushed out with the bottle tops”. was written by Roy Williams, and even though he hadn’t directed us, he came around after one performance, and said how much he had enjoyed the show. Now that really says something about the man and how generous he is with his time. Which Yorkshire sportsman, past or present, would you like to take for lunch?
Geoffrey Boycott, from Ackworth, just down the road. He’d have a few stories to tell. My dad would be green with envy if I ever did take Mr Boycott for lunch, he’s such a devoted fan. Do you follow sport in the county, and if so, what?
I was lucky enough to grow up in the 90s, which was a golden time for Yorkshire football, so that’s the game I still follow. I still open the paper and check out how Leeds are getting on although (whisper it) I have to confess that I am quite a fan of Liverpool. If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what would it be?
The Carleton Hotel – the first pub I ever had a drink in, and a microcosm of Yorkshire life. People would see what Yorkshire was all about just by listening to the banter and studying the faces of the customers. Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub?
The Rogerthorpe Manor Hotel, in Badsworth, where the food is wonderful. I once had a Barnsley Chop there that was delicious, truly out of this world. And every time that I travel north these days I swear I can smell a cousin of that chop wafting through the air as the train goes through Newark Northgate. Do you have a favourite food shop?
Not one shop, but dozens of them – in Leeds’s Kirkgate Market. It’s a treasure trove of everything and anything that you ever wanted or need. From fish and meat to pies and poultry, from ribbons to flowers, cleaning stuff and buckets to…. well, you name it. How do you think that Yorkshire has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it?
For the better. Leeds is so much more cosmopolitan than it was, and so much cleaner. I’ve filmed all over the country, and there’s nothing quite like Leeds (Sheffield not being that far behind) where you get character and history blended in with new developments and some stunning architecture. I’m very proud of being from Pontefract (a town with more stations, sweet manufacturers and pubs per square mile than anywhere else in the UK at one time) but I really do like Leeds and its boisterous buzz. Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire?
That amazing man Barry Cryer. Leedsborn, proud of it, and one of the funniest men ever to walk this earth. He’s written scripts for all the greats, he kills me every time I hear him on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, and he has infinite ability in so many fields. Has Yorkshire influenced your work?
How can it not? I lived here for the first 18 years of my life, and that informs what you are so much. I often use people that I know or have met in the characters that I play. Name your favourite Yorkshire book/ author/artist/CD/performer.
This will have to be Alan Bennett, for whom I have an admiration that is second to none. I go and see every one of his plays, I have read every single line that he’s ever published, and I watch everything that he does on TV and listen to him on the radio. He has a ferocious intellect, and yet he is modest and unassuming. If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be?
I am going to insist that they go to The Carleton, and in particular, on Boxing Day, because then they will see the true spirit and the indomitable nature of true Yorkshire folk. They’ll also have a cracking pint, as well.