Sunshine
Bernard Hill as George Crosby
Bernard Hill has appeared in roles from small television productions to major American and British films.
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He played Captain Smith in Titanic and more recently King Theoden of Rohan in the second and third instalments of The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.
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He has also starred in award winning films such as Gothika, Joy Division and The Scorpion King.
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In 2005 he was nominated for a TV BAFTA for his role in the television satire of David Blunkett, A Very Social Secretary, but he was first known for his role in the 91Èȱ¬ Play For Today The Black Stuff, which later became a successful series Boys From The Black Stuff.
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In Sunshine Bernard plays George Crosby, father to Bing and more importantly grandad to Joe.
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Speaking about the character, Bernard says: "What I've tried to do is make him responsible, in the sense that he's responsible to some extent for Bing's personality problems.
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"So he's skipped a generation and he's gone for the grandson to redeem himself in a way.
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"I think people might read into that because I think that happens a lot; the fact that he's so devoted to the grandson he's trying to make up for time that he missed with his son.
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"I said to Craig (Cash) very early on that what I want to do is build in the idea that as soon as he gets in a pub he's really happy and at home. And that's the key to it all really.
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"When you see him younger, in the Seventies, he's got lots of rings on his fingers, he's a pretty different kind of personality.
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"He's got sideboards and all that... I know people did that anyway in those days but he's a bit more of a stiff. I've got him shuffling cards really well, because he's used to all that."
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In the series Bernard's character is a widower but Bernard thinks that Bing's problems started well before the death of his mother.
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"I think the problems had started off before that, with his dad always being in the pub leaving his mother to bring him up.
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"I just wanted to highlight the fact that the grandad's devoted to the grandson is because he missed out on the equivalent time with his own son. So, for me, that was the route through it all."
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Bernard had to play a lot of scenes with Dominic, aged eight, the young actor who plays Joe, and they got on famously.
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"That was great fun. He and I got on really, really well. He's a great lad and he needed someone not to take it so seriously because he had to have a bit of a discipline because he's not trained at all, this is the first thing he's done.
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So, it was all brand new for him, and he kept forgetting that he was not supposed to look at the camera, and he's supposed to do this, supposed to do that, so I tried to make it fun, and as a result we got on really well.
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"Then whatever he needed to on the set or however he needed to behave or perform, I could get him to do it quite easily."
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