Doyle became a ‘prison’

Press, 18 April 1985, Page 19

Doyle became a ‘prison’

By Judith Regan Features International “The Professionals” represented a turbulent period in actor Martin Shaw’s career. He often described his years playing Ray Doyle as ‘like being in prison” and he intensely disliked the sexsymbol image with which he became tagged. Now, however, he says time has mellowed him. “It seems so long ago since "The Professionals’ that I can laugh at the whole business.” “When I think of my days as Ray Doyle, I realise that much of it was fun. All I remember now are the laughs that Lewis Collins and I had together. “I didn’t appreciate all that at the time, because I felt that I had become trapped by the whole system and I resented that. “In many ways, playing in ‘The Professionals’ was a dream. It was just like playing little boys’ games with grown-up toys. “It was sheer fantasy — the fast cars, the guns, the explosives and the girls. “The last series was the one I enjoyed most of all, because by then I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

By comparison, his role as Captain Scott in the new series “The Last Place on Earth,” now screening in Britain, is totally different. The series is about Scott’s tragic race to the South Pole and it has taken him on location to Norway, Greenland and Canada. “It was very tiring working like that, but it was also

immensely reqarding. “Iv’e always been determined that the next role I play win be as different as anything can be from the previous one — and I’ve certainly succeeded this time,” he says. He found it difficult to cope with the frenetic public adulation that he attracted as Ray Doyle. It

was not just people shouting after him in the street that annoyed him, but some fans discovered where he lived and came along to hammer on his windows and bang on his front door. “The personal appearances that were part of that job took some getting used to. The reaction from Ray Doyle’s fans was truly amazing. “I’d see women screaming and fainting whenever they saw me, and some of them tried ripping off bits of my clothes. “I think I managed to take a pretty well-balanced attitude towards that sort of stuff,” says Shaw. “I kept reminding myself that those fans were chasing after an illusion. “It wasn’t Martin Shaw who excited them. It was Ray Doyle — the electronic image.” Far worse than the problems with the female fans, however, were the occasions when men would want to test how tough Shaw, or “Doyle,” really was. “Every actor who plays tough roles has come up against situations like that,” says Shaw. “What so many viewers don’t realise is that it’s the stuntmen who make guys like me look invincible.” “The Professionals” screens on One at 10 o’clock this evening.