Actor Neil Grainger is Raising the Voice and Profile of Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough-born, East Midlands-based actor Neil Grainger has made his grand return to the small screen in Season 2 of the BBC comedy Smoggie Queens, which is now available to stream in full. From soap opera to sitcom, TV drama to video game voice acting, theatre to documentary voice-over, Neil has done it all. We at Starfish are very grateful to Neil for taking the time to chat with us about falling in love with acting at an early age, the diversity of his career to date, and the specific joy of working on Smoggie Queens, which is set in his hometown of Middlesbrough.
What’s your earliest memory of a film or TV show making an impact on you?
My first TV loves were cartoons like Transformers and He-Man that piqued my interest in fantasy and sci-fi before, like many people, falling in love with Star Wars and Spielberg films like E.T. and The Goonies. Then came sitcoms like Friends and Blackadder that I found both funny and familiar. My first TV obsession, though, was Red Dwarf. I’d never though it was possible to make a sitcom set in space and with such a brilliant working class Northern character in Lister, so I think this made me feel like the idea of a Northern boy like me working in TV was not a totally impossible dream.
Was acting always the dream for you as a child?
I think it was my dream since I was about 12 or 13. Up to that point, I can’t remember wanting to be anything other than Luke Skywalker or Optimus Prime. I never started acting because I loved it. I started doing amateur dramatics back in Middlesbrough because a girl I fancied was doing it and I wanted to a around her. I meant to fall in love with her but it was performing on stage that I really fell for.
You’re an acclaimed, award-nominated actor in the worlds of both TV and theatre. Do you have a dream stage role you’d love to play, or do you prefer working with playwrights on brand-new characters?
I think every actor wants to play the big Shakespearean roles like Hamlet or Macbeth at some point in their career but I really loved the plays of [Harold] Pinter and [Alan] Ayckbourn and the characters they created. I’d been lucky enough to work with Ayckbourn on some of his classics as well as a few of his new plays. There is something wonderful about working on a new play and helping to shape it. That’s what I really love about working on TV sitcoms too. You can influence the scene and dialogue through play and improvisation in a way that you can’t with TV drama.
Are there any particular types of stories or characters you find yourself especially drawn to when choosing your projects?
I love characters whose flaws are not too far from the surface. I’ve been super lucky to play [a] real spectrum of characters over the years and variety is a huge factor for me when choosing a role and project. I try to avoid being typecast where possible. That’s why I love my character in Smoggie Queens so much. Having spent two series in another BBC sitcom Hebburn, in which I played a bit of a vain poser, to now be playing a character so different in ‘Neil’ is great fun and a completely different challenge.
What originally appealed to you about Smoggie Queens and your character, also named Neil?
I think it was the whole project and working with Phil Dunning that first appealed to me. Phil and I had previously met on an ITV drama called A Spy Among Friends that we filmed out in Romania. He’d mentioned that he was writing something set in our hometown but I had never expected it to be as good and funny as it was when I first read it. Neil was a tricky character to know how to play and at the time of auditioning and filming the pilot, I think I was just trying to grasp who he was and how to play it. I think Phil and I both worked him out much more in series 2 and I now have a special place in my heart for him, even though he’s a bit odd.
Smoggie Queens is set in your hometown of Middlesbrough. What has it been like to work on a TV show that celebrates where you were born and raised?
It’s a total joy to film a show in the area I was born and raised. I think if you’d told me back when I was growing up in Middlesbrough that I’d spend each year filming a sitcom there I would [have] thought you were mad, but it really feels like times are changing. Middlesbrough and Teesside have been overlooked in British culture for many years. I always say that I have been a professional Geordie impersonator for most of my career as Teesside and the Teesside accent was never represented on TV other than maybe Vic and Bob, but hopefully times are changing. That’s why I love Smoggie Queens so much because it’s helping to raise the profile and voice of Middlesbrough and Teesside.
Do you find that comedy acting presents a different challenge to acting in soaps and TV dramas?
Definitely. I learnt how to act on TV in my early years doing soap opera and I think working in soap and filming 12 hours a day, 5 days a week really helped me develop how I act now in drama. So much of filming a drama is immersing yourself in the tone and the pace of the scene. Comedy, however, feels like a whole different ball game where you must be brave enough to play and push the creative boundaries. Both drama and comedy are incredibly special environments to work in, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that comedy is the most fun.
Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
I do but sadly nothing I can talk about just yet. Watch this space.
Photo Credits:
Photography - David Reiss
Styling - Andrew Burling
Grooming - Travis Nunes
Written by: Mia Tobin Power
Edited by: Kirsten Baldwin
