Alex Walkinshaw talks about playing Sgt Smithy Smith

Here's my interview with Alex Walkinshaw

Alex fights on as The Bill gets paid off in Scotland

Edinburgh Evening News
11 Jul 2009
EXCLUSIVE

EVENING all! Life can be tough on the Sun Hill beat. Just ask Sgt 'Smithy' Smith.

He's had a crisis of conscience of late. Ever since denying that he beat people-trafficker Jason Devlin( Guy Flanagan) to pulp after catching him kicking DC Stevie Moss( Lucy Speed) unconscious, The Bill favourite has been treading eggshells. Not least with fellow officer Sgt Stone( Sam Callis), who knows exactly what happened.

Things comes to ahead next Wednesday in the first of two action-packed episodes, in which Sgts Smith and Stone come to blows over the incident during a riot training exercise.

"Fight scenes are such great fun but they're demanding both physically and mentally," admits Alex Walkinshaw, who plays the everpopular Smithy.
"After recording the fight, Sam and I were covered from head to toe in bruises. It took us, five, six, seven hours to film it, and just the pure repetition of being bashed into a wall here or grabbed by the arm there or pushed in the chest, meant that we ended up black and blue."
With a grin, he adds, "But I loved it."

The current story-line has proved an exciting one for the 34-year-old actor who has played his character for ten years now. Not only does Smithy go battling with his fellow officer next week, but he finds him-selon the receiving end of a barrage of bricks and petrol bombs.
"When you're doing riot scenes, and up against different groups of people, that's quite difficult. Filming becomes very technical because there are 50 of you all having a fight. Some are waving metal poles around, you've got petrol bombs exploding, flame bars, and broken glass everywhere because you've been smashing up cars... there are just so many things to think about," he says, adding with just a hint of glee, "and then you've got to try to act and say words as well."

Wednesday's episode, Riot City, and Thursday's, Judgement Day, mark the end of an era for the award-winning cop show. Part of nationwide TV schedules for the past 26 years, they will be the last ever screened by STV, after the company chose to opt out of new episodes in favour of" home-spun" documentaries.

"That really is a shame because we get a lot of support from Scotland. I get loads of letters and emails from people in Scotland. But there are other ways of watching it, the new episodes are going to be on-line," says Walkinshaw, who actually made Bill debut 20 years ago - on the wrong side of the law.

"I've been with the show off and on for ten years now, but my relationship with The Bill started when I was 15 and did the first of a number of guest slots as various different no-goods," he says.

"My first scene was with Graham Cole( PC Stamp). He's the longest running character in the show now and I spent that scene day trying to kick him in the head - that was a day to remember."

Walkinshaw went on to play another couple of" little ruffians" before being offered the role of PC Smith in 1999. For a fan of the show, it was a no-brainer.

"As a kid I had a secret crush on old June Ackland - I still do if I'm being totally honest," he laughs, "But I loved The Bill when I was growing up. Like most people it was a series I dipped in and out of - you can always go back to The Bill, that's one of the successes of the series.

"Anyway, up to that point I'd always worked but never had a job where I had sustained a character for any real length of time, so the part came at just the right moment."

Ironically, for someone who had grown up with the show, it was one of Walkinshaw's early story-lines in 2001 that finished the career of one of the series' best loved characters, Sgt Bob Cryer.

"Which is interesting," says the actor. "My character shot Bob Cryer and has now taken on that kind of relief sergeant role himself. He's actually become a bit of Bob Cryer in that he is the protector and guardian of uniform."

Talking of uniform, Riot City was filmed at the Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre, at Gravesend, where Walkinshaw and Co watched police officers undergoing the training before joining them.

So what do the real boys in blue think of their TV counterparts?

"The biggest reaction we get is that they never see us do any paperwork," laughs Walkinshaw.
"But then at the end of the day, we are making drama so we do bend procedure a bit, especially as in the real world, there is a separate task-force for everything - at Sun Hill, we do it all.

"That said, they're very supportive of us, although some say, 'I can't watch The Bill because I've been at work all day and the last thing I need to see is more people running around in police uniforms'.

"But you have to take that as a bit of a compliment."

The Bill - Conviction: Riot City, STV, Wednesday, 8pm The Bill - Conviction: Judgement Day, STV, Thursday, 8pm