|
7th July 2003 Nigel: is Nigel Rhodes JC: is Jackie Clark RL: is Richard Landsberg
|
The interview got off to an unusual start as I was preparing the dinner while Richard chatted to Nigel about his life and work to date. Here is a transcript of that conversation; as you read it sit back and imagine Nigel's cheeky London accent and picture that you were in the room! |
| Part One:
When is a fan not a fan? When he's a stalker!
Nigel (talking about fan mail he used to receive): I got this letter from a girl and I sent back the standard reply… thanks for writing etc. She sent me another one and enclosed a photograph. I looked at the photograph, and I was only twelve or thirteen at the time, and it seemed really odd. It was black and white, a bit yellowing at the edges… this was old, I could see that it was old. She was saying in her letter that she was fourteen or fifteen but mum had a look at it and she went 'I'm not sure about this'. So then I got another letter and it revealed that she was actually a man called G****** who lived in Wales, and was in his late thirties or something like that. … So now my mum's gone 'something's wrong' and rung the police. This was just after the last series had finished when the height of all the fan mail was going on. The police came down and every day I was getting things in the post, big cushioned cards with tons of writing in it saying stuff like, 'I'd love to be walking in the park with your mum and dog Blackie etc.' So, the CID come down and this copper's having a look at the card and he says. 'This is a woman's handwriting'. My mum says no, he's told us that he's a man! They tried to trace where these letters were coming from and fortunately one weekend, I was upstairs having a bath at the time, there was a knock at the door and my mum answers it and there's a guy there in a trench coat who's about fortyish. He says 'Hello I'm G******' and she slams the door and got on the phone to the police who picked him up walking down the road. They took him to Wimbledon station and found out who he was. South Wales police came and got him but it turned out in the end that it was his mum who was writing the cards for him and the letters and she had packed him off on the train to come down to London to see me, a twelve-year-old boy. How weird's that? I was all stalked up! RL: When I was doing my video everybody had a different version of where you were. When someone doesn't know where someone is they make it up… you were on a farm, you were whaling in Australia… Nigel: Excellent. That sounds about the right one. But no, I wasn't. My mum fell ill and that put paid to any more acting, plus my hair was getting long, I was into my music and I didn't really know which way I was gonna go and stuff. The sicker my mum got the more I knew that I had to get a proper job with a regular wage. When they diagnosed my mum with cancer I knew I had to get a regular
job…my band raised over a £1000 for the teenage cancer trust
last week. I thought yes! Great, and that's just on the door. I really
honestly didn't know any of this Tomorrow People stuff was going on.
It's brilliant! I'm so amazed by it all… |
|
