My Favourite Holiday Tony Osoba

Coronation Street and Porridge star Tony Osoba reveals his favourite holiday haunts.

Tony Osoba has been an actor for more than 40 years. He was textile boss Peter Ingram in Coronation Street and has had roles in numerous series from Doctor Who and Holby City to Taggart and Dempsey & Makepeace.

But Glasgow-born Tony is best-known to many as Jock McLaren in Porridge. The perennial favourite series is being celebrated in Porridge: Inside Out.

Marking the show’s 40th anniversary, the three-part documentary series reveals secrets and speaks to cast members including Tony, 67, and Christopher Biggins.

He told The Sunday Post: “My parents divorced when I was five or six, so my sisters and I were brought up by mum and money was really tight.

“She came from Leadhills in South Lanarkshire and still had friends there. So, holidays were either spent there or down the Ayrshire coast.

“I still get shivers down my spine when I think back to one holiday in Troon when I was nine.

“My kid sister Elizabeth was four years younger than me and we got cut off by the tide as we’d been obsessed in looking at crab pools.

“We were surrounded by water and I was trying to get Elizabeth on my back. I was trying not to transmit my panic to her but I had cold fear in my heart.

“I remember trying desperately not to tell my mum about the incident. But it was the greatest feeling of terror I’ve ever had and it comes back to me even now.

“I worked in America a lot in the 1990s and it’s easily become the favourite holiday place of my wife Sally and myself. We adore driving holidays and I think I’ve covered something like 44 of the 50 states.

“It’s such a huge, diverse country with so many different aspects. I just love planning a route and then hitting the road.

“We’ve done the likes of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, northern states like New England, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and western ones like Nevada and California.

“Before I became an actor I was thinking about becoming a car designer. So I’ve always been a huge car fan it’s been said I change cars more than some people change shirts and I like to get something nice to drive.

“We’ve met some fascinating people along the way and one of the things we love is just coming across something as you go.

“We’ve arrived at some great festivals we didn’t know about, although I’ve always wanted to see a rodeo and it seems we’ve always been a week too late.

“Prior to the States we did the same in France, Spain or Italy, flying in, picking up a car and just seeing what we fancied when we fancied it.

“I think it’s a great way of discovering what a country is really like. Porridge is such a famous show that you do get noticed, especially when it was first on.

“I remember standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, looking at this natural wonder, when this Brit wandered over and started talking to me about Slade Prison! But as I have nothing but fond memories of the show I didn’t mind.

Porridge: Inside Out is on Gold on Wednesday, May 21 at 8pm.