Being boring 'must be biggest social sin’

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 15

Being boring 'must be biggest social sin’

From

JUDITH REGAN

in London

He is smug, humourless and boring . . . that is the verdict on Trevor Mountjoy in the new hit comedy “The Bounder” from the man who created him. George Cole. George, who stars with Peter Bowles in the new series, which is now screening in Britain, declares: “I hope I'm not as boring in real life as Trevor is. On the other hand. I'm not very keen on being identified with the shifty Arthur Daly in ‘Minder either!" So what is 57-vear-old George reallv like when he is off duty? ' , “Well, nothing like Arthur for a start," he says. “'For one thing. I'm not at all sociable, like he is. "I'd much rather have a couple of friends in for a drink at home than go to a pub. And I've never been much of a one for backslapping parties. “Arthur is a bundle of energy who can't sit still for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

"My idea of strenuous exercise is switching the TV from one channel to another, and I'e even got a remote control set so that I can do that from the comfort of my favourite armchair. "Arthur's wife — ‘Her Indoors! as he calls her — frightens the living daylights out of him. My wife (former actress Penny Morrell) is an absolute sweetie." And there is, of course, the difference in accents. Arthur's is as Cockney'as it should be for someone who was born within the sound of Bow Bells. George, although he was born and brought up

in working-class south London. has no trace of it.

He speaks, in fact, just like Trevor Mountjoy, who is a real-estate agent, but there the resemblance ends. "I think it must be the biggest social sin. in the world to be a bore." he says. “And yet one meets so many Trevors, and at the same time, one can't help feeling sorry for them. “The thing is. of course, they don't feel a bit sorry for themselves, because they've no idea that they are actually being boring. Heaven knows how Mary (Trevor's wife in the series, who is played by Rosalind Ayres) puts up with him.” Ask Penny Cole how she puts up with George, and she'll tell you: “I think he's wonderful. We've known each other for 16 years now. and been married for 15. and we still never stop telling ourselves how lucky we were to have found each other.

“In fact, I'd even go so far as to say we’re in danger of being a bit smug about it!” They met . when they appeared together in a stage play and both were going through divorces. George had the added difficulty of trying to bring up two young children single-handed, and in between going out on dates with him, Penny was a willing baby-sitter. "It was while I was babysitting one night that his daughter, who was 10 at the time, suddenly said: ‘Why don’t you two get married?' we thought, 'what a smashing idea,' so we did." Penny was 28 then - 11 years younger than George — and had a promising career in front of her, but

even now, she has no regrets that she gave up showbusiness for so long. “George's son was only four at the time, and needed me at home, and then our own children came along, and somehow the years just flew past terribly quickly." Now, the children. Tara and Toby, are 12 and 10. and "home" is a lovely, detached house set in two hectares of woodland in Oxfordshire.

“You might say there is just one small similarity between Arthur . Daly ’ and myself,” says George. “I'm always very keen to get my hands on a bargain, and I managed to buy the woodland for what I’thought was quite a snip, way back in the fifties.

“The only snag was that I couldn't afford to do anything with it. so for years I used to talk casually about ‘my marvellous little plage in Oxfordshire,’ and it sounded very grand. “Fortunately, nobody seemed to realise that there wasn’t a house on it, and they never actually asked to come and stay.”

Now one of television's highest-paid actors, he is happy to make a financial -sacrifice in order to take a stage role in Gilbert and Sullivan's “The Pirates of Penzance.”

Says George: “For one thing, like almost every actor I know. I vastly prefer doing theatre work to television. And for another. I was very flattered to be asked.

“I had never thought of doing Gilbert and Sullivan. I never even thought I could sing. In fact, I'm still not sure that I can, but when I

crackled through a few bars from ‘The Pirates of Penzance' the producer seemed to think it was okay."

Already there is" talk of another series of "The Bounder" next year, and both George and Dennis Waterman have agreed to another batch of “Minder" stories. “I counted up the other day." he says, “and I found that Dennis and I have made 39 'Minder' episodes in all, and I can truthfully say that I've enjoyed every one". And it's been same with ‘The Bounder.'

"I must say." he smiled, "it's very nice to enjoy what you do so thoroughly, and to get paid for doing it." • TVNZ has ordered a copy of “The Bounder" for evaluation.