Scots star Joe McFadden is delighted there’s no more Mr Nice Guy.
Joe’s last long-running lead role was as likeable PC Joe Mason in Heartbeat, but he’s just joined Holby City as registrar Raf di Lucca.
The half-Italian medic is stirring things up in the popular BBC One drama, and that suits Joe just fine.
“He’s confident and driven so maybe people think he’s a bit brusque and bolshie,” Joe told The Sunday Post.
“But that’s OK after being on Heartbeat with such a sympathetic character with no rough edges. They wanted him to be heroic all the time. After a while you think, ‘There’s no jeopardy. People know he’s going to save the day every single week.’
“It gets a little bit predictable, whereas it’s nice to play people who have a bit of darkness and don’t have to be liked all the time.”
Joe still gets stopped by people saying they miss the show and his episodes have been screening daily on ITV3 recently.
Despite his reservations about being such a goody two shoes, Joe has fond memories of shooting the show on the Yorkshire Moors.
“It’s a lovely part of the world and I made some really nice friends,” confides Joe, who says the axing of the show didn’t affect him too much.
“But you only play that role for two or three years and they get someone else.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be long term for me. And while it was really nice, you’re the focus and on set every single day which is quite exhausting.
“Part of me was glad it ended because it meant I could get my life back. In Holby you have 15 or 16 cast members and everyone gets a crack of the whip.”
Joe was hand-picked for the part of the registrar whose resuscitation skills can bring patients back from the brink of death.
A Casualty producer saw him in a play and said he’d been looking for a Holby role for him ever since.
“I didn’t even have to audition, which doesn’t happen very often,” admits Joe, who lives in North London.
“Sometimes you jump through hoops and end up not getting the job. The added bonus is that the studio is only half an hour from my house so it’s nice to be in my own bed every night.”
Joe gets back to see family and friends in Glasgow as often as possible and reckons he still owes a debt to his old childhood drama teacher.
“She was amazing and I sometimes wonder what I might have done if I hadn’t had her as a teacher,” he adds.
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