Mark Wingett - The TV Times Interview
Dave Porter
As PC Carver's life spirals out of control, actor Mark Wingett is reliving
his own personal nightmare - one which came very close to destroying him
...
The PAM FRANCIS Interview - Copyright TV Times, reproduced without
permission.
Mark Wingett strolls into the restaurant apologising for his lateness and
turns up his nose in distaste as he recounts his journey. The cab he was
in, he says, smelled of vomit from a passenger who overdid it on drink the
previous night.
When it comes to ordering our drinks, Mark remains resolutely teetotal. He
opts for water, pure and simple. So how long is it since he touched
alcohol?
'I was working it out on the way over. It was five years, five months and
13 days. People with drink problems always know exactly how long it's been
since they stopped,' he says.
'I had reached the end of my tether. Something inside me snapped that day
and I realised I had a serious problem. It was like winding a rubber band -
eventually it just gave.'
For the last few weeks however; the 38-year-old actor has been back on the
booze as The Bill's PC Jim Carver, reliving on screen his own real life
day-to-day struggle with the demon drink. We've already seen signs that
Carver isn't coping with life on the beat, when he was drunk on duty in a
recent episode.
What we're about to see over the next few episodes shocked even Mark when
he read the scripts. After nearly 16 years as one of the show's favourite
characters, we're about to see Carver spiral out of control.
We're not just talking tipsy here either. His whole slide into alcoholism
takes him into a dark, depressing, frightening underworld where he risks
losing everything.
It's a world that was once all too familiar to Mark. On the outside he had
it all. A starring role on a long-running drama, a loving relationship with
his long-time partner Sharon, and a lovely little daughter; Jamila.
Yet the damaging effects of his drinking were filtering into every area of
his life, including The Bill. Was it really affecting life at Sun Hill?
'Well if you're p***** on set, it's quite obvious,' says Mark. 'I'd finish
drinking at 3am and go to work at 6am. I didn't know when the hangover
started because I'd make it through to the afternoon and at lunchtime go
and have a couple of whiskies, or a couple of pints, then go out in the
evening and continue drinking.
'I couldn't stop. I thought it was normal. When you drink heavily you think
it is normal. You don't notice that people around you aren't drinking the
same amount as you, or behaving the in the same way as you.
How much was he drinking? 'It's pointless to put figures on it because
everyone's different. Besides, some people's tolerance to alcohol is
different to others. Something I've learned is that it's not how much and
how often, it's what happens to you when you do which defines an alcoholic.
'Alcoholics can be very successful, they can do their work. It's just the
rest of lives they have trouble with and I was one of those.'
The son of a naval officer, Mark and his brother and sister spent most of
their childhood in Portsmouth. After leaving the National Youth Theatre at
17, he landed his first job playing a mod in Quadrophenia. By his early
20s, he was a name in The Bill and was drinking too much. He cannot
pinpoint the reason but says: 'I have complete belief in the saying that
you're an alcoholic even before you have a drink. It's a mental illness.
Five-and-a-half years ago, Mark looked with horror at the way he was living
his life. 'I had reached rock bottom and was on the verge of losing
everything.'
One of the people who played a vital role in his recovery was his partner
Sharon, a 37-year-old makeup artist. The couple had met at a theatre club
about 13 years ago, when Sharon fell off a bar stool laughing. 'She fell at
my feet, so I picked her up, literally,' says Mark.
Sharon encouraged Mark to join an alcoholics support group. 'She was
amazing,' he reveals. 'I couldn't have done it without her. She's a very
beautiful woman, both physically and personality wise. She's a very
practical girl. She can sort out problems. She makes decisions and sticks
with them. She's a very warm person with great wisdom.'
With such bleak memories of his alcoholic years, it seems strange today
that it was his idea to turn Carver into a drunk. 'It's like purging
myself. Plus this was a way of bringing Carver to the fore.'
Mark says he suggested the alcoholic storyline soon after the death of his
close friend Kevin Lloyd, who died in May last year after a drinking binge.
'At that time the producers thought it was too close to home. But a few
months later; they changed their minds,' he explains. 'I thought it was a
good character move for Carver and we have tried to make it as real as
possible.
'Since he has gone back into uniform, Carver has lost his self esteem and
his poise. At the moment he's stuck. He was quite happy just to sit at his
desk and do the absolute minimum. Going back into uniform he realises that
he's past it. Things are quicker on the street, it's more violent, there
are more drugs.
He doesn't know if he can cope anymore. The nice thing about these scripts
is it's like throwing a pebble in a pond and watching all the ripples go
outwards. Everyone starts to cover for Carver's behaviour. It's what people
do for alcoholics.'
Watching Mark film painful scenes brought tears to the eyes of the film
crew as they thought back to the battle with alcohol that Kevin Lloyd had
fought and lost.
Mark also remembered his frustration at watching Kevin fighting an
addiction he himself had beaten. 'It was soul-destroying because I knew he
would have benefited from what I've got, yet he couldn't grasp it.'
There is one scene when Carver is full of self-pity and crying. 'I worked
myself up for that one, that self-pity thing. Alcoholics love a bit of
self-pity, I remember that very well.'
But filming wasn't all tears. There is a scene between Carver and a
businessman in which Mark manages to get 'drunk' on pretend whisky. 'We
were on top of a car park in Croydon and although the whisky was only
coloured water; we both felt we had been drinking. It was the most
extraordinary thing,' he says. 'It was the first time we had met and had
this drinking scene. We were both giggling like schoolgirls, staggering
round.'
Mark also performs his first nude scene, shot at the Salvation Army baths
in Bermondsey, south London.
Do we get to see Carver in the raw? 'It won't be that graphic. Hope not,
I'm a bit overweight at the moment,' says Mark, laughing.
'I did my first nude scene when I was 17 and I cried. I kept thinking:
"What if my mum sees my bum on screen?" I didn't cry this time. It was
quite liberating to get your kit off in front of your colleagues.
Although the scenes are serious, Mark has enjoyed filming such a tough
storyline. 'It's a ridiculous thing to say, but I have had great fun. An
absolute ball.'
Carver might be knocking them back, but since Mark quit drinking, he has
changed more than he thought possible. 'I'm not so serious now,' he says.
Life is more fun than I ever thought it could be. I am more at peace with
myself, a deep-seated peace which I never had before.
'What you do is to choose not to take the first drink. Now I do have
choices about whether I drink or not. Each day I choose not to drink. I
have more respect for myself.'
Mark and his family have just moved into a five-bedroom home in north
London which he's renovating. He and Sharon have also just enjoyed a
holiday in Antigua. Life is good and Mark is lapping up every moment. He
makes a great lunch companion.
As far as Carver is concerned, Mark feels he has been able to inject
realism because he obviously knows what the character's going through.
'I didn't get as bad as young James [Carver] does. But then hundreds of
thousands of people do. I'm not anything special,' he admits.
Mark often wonders what would have happened if he hadn't pulled himself
together and got off the road to ultimate destruction.
'I would have carried on drinking, and maybe had another 10 or 15 years
inside of me if I'd been lucky. There is only one way it ends up if you
continue drinking, and that's in death. I would have died."
There is also stuff on other pages about the continuing story line. Go on,
buy the TV Times!
--
Dave Porter - Northumberland, England. Tel: 077 0316 8305
http://www.radiopages.co.uk/ - Radio Pages web design.
http://www.wcbs.demon.co.uk/ - The Dave Porter pages.
Ian Jelf
<da...@radiopages.co.uk> writes
>As PC Carver's life spirals out of control, actor Mark Wingett is reliving
>his own personal nightmare - one which came very close to destroying him
>...
Thanks for posting that, Dave. Much appreciated.
--
Ian Jelf http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk
Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide
for the Heart of England and London
Jeremy
Porter) very graciously wrote:
>Mark also performs his first nude scene, shot at the Salvation Army baths
>in Bermondsey, south London.
>
One for the girls then!
>As far as Carver is concerned, Mark feels he has been able to inject
>realism because he obviously knows what the character's going through.
>
As many have commented, now we know the reason.
>There is also stuff on other pages about the continuing story line. Go on,
>buy the TV Times!
What, and spoil all the fun we have speculating.
Dave Porter
Ian Jelf <i...@bluebadge.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Thanks for posting that, Dave. Much appreciated.
You're welcome.
Dave Porter
Jeremy <bmj...@talk21.com> wrote:
>What, and spoil all the fun we have speculating.
Okay, I will say no more except this: The Jim Carver storyline is far from
over.