Sorted - new drama series for 91Èȱ¬ ONE
Will Mellor plays Barmpot
Barmpot is so nicknamed because Roger Barmforth is a bit of an oddball, according to Will Mellor – which makes him an easy target for the others.
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"He is the butt of the jokes, they love to wind him up and get a good laugh out of it because it is so easy to do," Will smiles. "He's like a nappy – anything you tell him he absorbs and really believes.
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"He can be too serious at times as well – he gets a bit irate over things that he shouldn't; things that he should just laugh off he gets really anal about and gets wound up. And he's useless with women – if he's attracted to somebody he doesn't really know what to do with himself.
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"He's besotted with Nancy, who's this beautiful girl
in the canteen, but she doesn't feel the same. She's his dream woman but
she doesn't really take him too seriously.
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"Barmpot is a strange sort, not the kind of person you'd see as a boyfriend. But he does know how to have a laugh and the lads keep him laughing. They bring out the lighter side of him."
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Their teasing stems from genuine fondness because, despite his quirks, Barmpot has a good heart.
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"They all know that they can rely on him. His best quality is his honesty – he
really wants to do the right thing and he's a true friend!"
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But Will says Barmpot can be a pain when he's banging on about politics.
"He's trying to be the local councillor for the Labour party, which means the
world to him, but he tries to turn every conversation into something to do with
the government," Will says, adding that he himself couldn't differ more from
Barmpot on this front.
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"I hate politics and politicians," he says with a disillusioned air. "You can never get a straight answer out of them and it just does my head in so I'd rather just stay out of it.
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"Mind you, I couldn't do it anyway. We were in the street filming Barmpot canvassing for Labour, and the amount of abuse I got because I had a rosette on – people thought I was a real Labour councillor. It was unbelievable.
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"Even though I told people it was just for a TV show
they were giving me so much stick – 'You want to get the troops out of
Iraq, that's what you want to do!', 'You want to fix that kerb, you want
to sort the schools out...' So I actually do respect them a little bit
for the stick they must get."
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He's also come to think highly of postmen, but says there's no way he could do that job either.
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"I'd make a useless postman!" he admits with a laugh. "There's no way I'd get up at half four in the morning – no way. I'm a night owl, I come alive at nine o'clock at night – I couldn't do it because I'd have to be in bed for nine or ten o'clock.
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"I'd miss all the Champions League; miss all the boxing
on Friday fight nights... I couldn't do it. There's a job for everyone
and mine is definitely not being a postman."
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There was, though, one aspect that he enjoyed while filming – although he's not at all sure whether real postmen actually do the same thing...
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"To pass the time in the sorting office in between takes we had elastic band fights all day," he grins. "You have to have elastic bands everywhere for the mail and it got like Bugsy Malone, the big custard pie fight at the end.
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"Even the director got in on it, that's how immature
we've become! So next time I see my postman, I'm going to ask him if they
have elastic band fights in his sorting office. I hope they do!"
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Will reveals that the cast bonded quickly and were soon just like their counterparts in Sorted. "That's what is going to be the strength of this programme, the camaraderie between the group of lads," he says.
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"We all got on really well too – we've all got the same sense
of humour. But we're also all really professional when we need to be. It's
good to be working with these sorts of actors because it makes me raise
my game and I have a lot of respect for them."
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Will himself has a more than respectable CV including his big breakthrough as a teenager playing Jambo in Hollyoaks, three years in Casualty as roguish receptionist Jack, ambitious DC Jed Griffiths in Murder Investigation Team and classic Jack-the-lad Gaz in Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps – not to mention winning Celebrity Fame Academy in 2003.
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Though he's best known for playing quite knockabout characters – rather like he was himself in his youth, he admits – Will's
been cast in quite a different role as Barmpot.
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"I'm not playing that this time and I'm really glad I'm not, because you can get stuck in a rut. I couldn't have wished for a better job to come along really, and the scripts speak for themselves – I loved it straight away, it was a proper page-turner.
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"It has a really warm feeling and it'll have you laughing
and crying in the same episode and that's the sort of stuff I want
to do, really warm northern drama."
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For Stockport-born Will, 30, the northern aspect is important. "I love Manchester," says Will emphatically.
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"I've got a baby boy and my partner lives in London, which
is obviously where I live when I'm not working, but I come back to Manchester
quite a lot. So
to work up here on Sorted has been great because I've spent loads of time with
my family – the only problem is I've missed
my son a lot."
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And his son will be hoping Will goes home in his postie uniform. "My son loves Postman Pat," he grins. "We bought him a Postman Pat doll and he loves it, takes it to bed and everything. I'm his living, breathing Postman Pat..."
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Though he could probably do with a moustache and a cat, he admits with a wry smile. "Postman Barmpot – it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it..."
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