Colin Fifth — young star on the ascendant

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 11

Colin Fifth — young star on the ascendant

The title of tonight’s major drama series on One — “Lost Empires” — is proving rather misleading.

Although the name suggests a sweeping historical portrait of the lost realms of the ages, the programme has an altogether more entertaining brief. "Lost Empires” evokes the romance and magic of the music hall of England’s past, with all the attendant humour, drama and tragedy, as seen through the eyes of a conjurer’s assistant and general dogsbody, Richard Herncastle (Colin Firth).

Twenty-six year ■ old Firth’s star is on the ascendant, but the actor is quick to suggest that he is not as interesting as he feels he should be.

“There’s some pressure on me these days to make out I’m more interesting than I really am,” says Firth. "People keep asking me what my interests are and I feel I should say collecting stamps or train spotting. Anything. “But it’s my work that swallows me up. That’s my interest. I like getting involved with the parts, researching all aspects of them.

"In ‘Lost Empires’ I even learned to do a few magic tricks. I know now how to do the Chinese ring trick, where you pull metal rings through each

other. And levitation, that was another illusion I learnt. We could have used trick photography, but it seemed right to do it properly, to make it magic. “Actually, it doesn’t do to look too deeply at how

some of the illusions are created because, once you know the secret, they seem amazingly fatuous.” For someone who claims that the best moment for any actor is being offered the part, and that "after that, it’s

downhill all the way,” he is remarkably dedicated. Firth is a product of parents who both lecture, his father in history, and his mother in English and comparative religions, but a. closet student he is not.

“I could go on for hours about how much I hated school, but that’s really why I decided on acting,” says Firth.

"There was this wonderful moment when I thought, Tve had enough of this boredom.’ I loathed my secondary education and was desperately undisciplined. I remember a teacher saying to me, ’You’re just not interested, are you boy?’ And I thought, 'Congratulations, you’re absolutely right.’ “Making the decision to become an actor was terribly liberating. There was an excuse after that to be bad at maths.” His first feature film appearance was in the lauded “Another Country” in 1984, and after that came the teleplay "Dutch Girls” in 1985.

Comparing himself to the character he plays in “Lost Empires,” Firth says, "I don’t think I’m uptight like Richard. He’s tense, isn’t he? What I have is a lot of nervous energy that is likely to escape at any minute.”

Colin Firth stars in “Lost Empires” tonight on One at 9.00.