Steven Grives of ‘Flambards’

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 19

Steven Grives of ‘Flambards’

Steven Grives. the 30-year-old English actor who plays Mark in “Flambards,” which will complete its run on Two this coming Sunday, relishes his part. “I had a lot of press in England as a sort of English J R!” he said. At the moment Steven Grives is enjoying himself in • another nasty role — that of the scheming, gambling Jason Scott in the new Australian production, “Holiday ■ Island.” Grives went to Australia late last year with his wife, Maggie, and their nine-month-old daughter Alexandra for a holiday and to visit Maggie’s parents in Sydney. Now it looks like they’re there to stay. They have already bought a house in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Grives says he’s quite happy to stay in Australia and admits it was in the back of his mind when he ■ came that he might be able to get work. “I had got to a certain stage in my career in England where I’m known and in relative terms I’m a successful actor. But there’s no real' future there for me at the moment,” he said.

Last year, Steven made a TV series, called “Second Chance,” with Susannah York and a horror movie with Judy ■ Geeson, “Inseminoid,” both sold in the United States. “With those going in the United States, I thought we should go and have a look around. We’d just sold our house in Hampstead so there was nothing to stop us taking off for a while.

“But I hated it in America. I didn’t like Los Angeles very much because it was intimidating. I’ve got a young baby and a wife and I was worried about them because it’s a very violent city. So we came to Australia for Christmas.” When he arrived, Steven

found that “Flambards” was screening on a local station, so he rang to see if they’d like him to do any promotional work. Some interviews followed and Steven heard that the producer, Jock Blair, was casting for mini-series “Sara Dane” and needed actors. Steven contacted Blair and landed a role. Then came his nasty and meaty role in “Holiday Island.”