A change of style for lain Cuthbertson

Press, 25 March 1981, Page 15

A change of style for lain Cuthbertson

By

JUDITH REGAN,

Features International.

There’s no job in showbusiuess as rewarding as playing Lilians, maintains the Scottish actor, lain Cuthbertson. And he’s, certainly found how to make crime pay on TV. A greedy gangster, a bullying headmaster and a hardhearted father have been among his recent roles, but lain told me: "When people meet me in real life .one of the first things they say is that I'm a lot jollier than they expected.” lain, who is currently playing the crusading newspaper editor, Alexander Russel, in ..the 8.8. C. "The Walls, of Jericho.” is a massive man. He stands six feet four inches and tips the scales at about 15 stone, and probably ’has the broadest shoulders and biggest fists in showbusi,ness. . ■ “Playing Alexander Russel is. a very interesting experience,” ’ he says, but admits that , the role he probably enjoyed most was ,that of a mobster, Charlie Endell, whom he first played some years ago in "Budgie,” which starred Adam Haith. To lain’s surprise. Endell — the Glasgow-born viceczar. strip-proprietor, bluemovie mogul and general fixer for the underworld —

quickly grew into a TV folkhero. And- he recalls that Endell's character was actually born years before in a frightening encounter with a. street-fighter in a Glasgow pub. : lain was standing by the bar, enjoying a quiet drink, when somebody tapped him sharply on the shoulder and a soft voice said: “You’ve got a right bad habit of lookin’ over into company. So watch it.” .' . The man — a good 12 inches shorter than lain —

didn't exactly look tough enough to stand up to lain in a rough-house, but lain recalls: "There was something unnerving about his. staring eyes and his white face. “I sensed that there was a violence lurking in that man that could have erupted at any second. "They were probably the most frightening ", few moments of my life. I was by. myself, and I didn’t know which way the situation was going to develop. “So I just drank up my

beer and left as quickly as I could. “I never forgot that man,” says lain, “and his voice, his cruel eyes, his sheer vindictiveness all proved invaluable when I was asked to play Charlie Endell.” lain said that- “it’s probably easier and more interesting to play screen baddies, because the heroes so often seen, to miss out on the best lines.” It’s a suprising admission from a man whose earliest ambition was to follow the

footsteps of his boyhood hero, the Scottish missionarjjDavid Livingstone. “I really did dream of the day when I would work in Africa, as a missionary, just like him,” lain told me. But acting entered his life when he was a student at Aberdeen University and he began in radio drama. Then, after two years with the Black Watch on National Service, lain decided to become an actor. He enjoys television work, he says, because “it's: -the

nearest any actor can get to enjoying a normal, eighthour day, five-days-a-week.” “It means that I can lead a fairly normal way of life,” he said, “and it's such a strange situation that, after theatre work, it can take some getting used to.” Yet lain Cuthbertson welcomes the change, which gives him more time to spend at his home on the Solway Firth, in a house surrounded by acres of National Trust woodland, moorland and seashore.

“My personal ambition is now to become a really knowledgeable naturalist,” lain told me. "I would love to be able to remember the names of birds, to identify plants, and to know why they grow where they grow.”