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3 t t Profile Bradley Walsh t earning some serious money. “In the early Bradley reliving his those shows a year Coronation Street star days it was a struggle to juggle my day job early footballing and sometimes a “There is Debra Stephenson. with showbusiness ambitions and there days at a charity change is as good And last year his were times when we were left with £5 at match as a rest. Variety only one thing comedy series the end of the week for food,” he says. is great for the around the Sun Trap was His daughter, Hayley, is now 34 and soul, so for a critical and Bradley also has a son, Barney, with wife four months of corner, and commercial Donna, a choreographer who he has been the year I’m a flop, one critic married to for 19 years, having met in detective.” that’s more remarking that 1992. They spent the first few years of Although his corners” “there are things I’d married life in Donna’s East London career has also rather do than watch ‘manor’ Canning Town, but the couple embraced stand-up comedy, Sun Trap and one of them now live in Chigwell, Essex Bradley prefers to think of himself as, is watching paint dry” . Hayley, he says, never showed any first and foremost, an actor. That’s not to say The series had been a interest in following her old man onto the he doesn’t enjoy playing host, be it new conscious attempt by Bradley to stage, preferring a behind the scenes role. ITV1 week day quiz show Cash Trapped, open a new chapter in his career. “I do seem to remember she’d tap me or Sunday Night at the London Palladium. “I had spent so many years up when she was younger for the odd pop Of Cash Trapped, Bradley says, “It was on Law & Order being a O T O T O O star’s autograph though!” H an idea I came up with in my dressing downtrodden detective standing P H
P K
K Bradley’s big break came when he was C room about ten years ago whilst in on Hammersmith Bridge at six C O T O S T
S Y asked to host the Royal Variety Show. He between scenes on a drama.” It involves o’clock in the morning, being Y M A M L A A was 33 at the time. six contestants going head-to-head in a rained and snowed on, and I L / A / D T D L T
“An ITV executive had seen me support series of fast question rounds trying to trap thought, ‘I’ll have a bit of a L
N N N E N E Shirley Bassey in concert – that was my W their competitors out of the game. change of direction in my career
W
© lucky break. As I’d done my Although The Chase, ‘Corrie’, Sunday and go and do Sun Trap in Gran © apprenticeship by working Night at the London Palladium and Law Canaria. That was the deciding Bradley with wife Donna and son Barney in the clubs for years, & Order: UK have made him a household factor for me. being booed off stage name, life has not always run smoothly for “That’s the whole basis of what I wanted all those years ago at the London at Blackpool, having Bradley. He was linked romantically with to do with my career. I didn’t want to do Palladium, that still motivates him. to win over Bernie Nolan in the late Eighties, but the the same thing all the time. Everyone’s “There have been times when I’ve felt audiences of “You can achieve relationship disintegrated amidst some path is different. It’s not always about like packing it all in but it’s the love of this 11,000 when I bitterness, and Bradley found himself in money – sometimes it’s about the business that’s kept me going and the was a support act anything if you when he took take the role of Danny however; it was wife the tabloids again some 15 years later journey.” Despite the knocks, Bradley says endless support I’ve had from people for Tom Jones at put your mind on the role of Donna who persuaded him. over his close friendship with fellow it is his love of showbusiness, instilled in like Des O’Connor who’s been like a the NEC in the factory manager “She’s the one who recognised what it dad to me and, when he was alive, late Eighties, it was to it.” Danny Baldwin in could do for me even though it would Bob Monkhouse who never stopped very welcome, and Coronation Street, the mean being apart.” Bradley in Law & Order: UK encouraging me.” opened doors for me.” son of factory owner Making the most of his raised media He has little time, however, for the new Having started out as a Mike Baldwin. Although, profile, Bradley began hosting the popular breed of reality show ‘entertainers’. comedian, Bradley soon at the time, Bradley was also daytime quiz show The Chase in 2009 and “It’s galling that people who sweat realised he had to broaden his horizons hosting a chat show and a variety show as one edition, in which he was confronted blood and tears on stages all over Britain and try his hand at acting, despite not well as appearing in panto, he relished the with having to pronounce the name of can’t even get a sniff of work on national having any formal training. pressure. “Anyone who tells you an actor’s German alpine skier Fanny Chmelar has television while these idiots are presented “I never did any of that drama school life is stressful is having you on,” he told long been a Youtube favourite. In fact it as so-called entertainment. stuff. What’s the point in all that the Mirror at the time. became a tradition that writers on the “At least The X Factor and Strictly Come ‘act like you’re a tree’ rubbish. I know it’s “If they think it’s too much to take they show would deliberately come up with Dancing are about people achieving goals. meant to help you get in touch with your should get out of it. Why don’t they go to names to catch him out. At least they’re trying to entertain. inner self but how often in your life do bed early like anyone else who has to get From 2009 to 2014 Bradley also starred “At the end of the day everyone’s path you need to be a tree?” up early? I’ll tell you what stress is, it’s in 53 episodes of the ITV detective series is different. It’s not always about
Bradley’s first major acting being a single-mum in a one-roomed flat Law & Order: UK as world-weary copper O money, sometimes it’s about the journey. T O H P
breakthrough was in the Channel 4 series, in Kosovo, it’s digging roads from dawn till DS Ronnie Brooks, and he relished It’s taken me 53 years to get here, so K C O
Lock, Stock… followed by that of spineless dusk, it’s being a miner. It’s not being able slipping between these two very different T maybe there’ll be more twists and S
Y
yes-man Dave Dodds in the film version of to feed your kids. I’ve been in roles, that of serious actor and quiz show M turns, who knows? There is only one A L A /
Mike Bassett: England Manager. His showbusiness for 20 years and I’m still host. “When I’m doing The Chase I can be A thing around the corner, and that’s P F W career took a big leap forward, however, pinching myself.” Bradley almost didn’t me and have a laugh, but we make 150 of more corners.” ©
24 CHOICE SEPTEMBER 2016 SEPTEMBER 2016 CHOICE 25