Pale Rider

Urban cowboy Michael Elphick may look butch on a bike, but mention speeding off into the sunset and his tan fades before your eyes.

Although it’s a busy midweek morning, the barren riverfront site in Nottingham is deserted. A concrete jetty and empty warehouses only add to the eeriness. But, clustered around one of the derelict buildings is a film crew and, standing proudly by the water’s edge, is a gleaming black motorbike – a classic BSA Gold Star 650cc, better known as White Lightning.

Bike fans will recognise the machine straightaway as the faithful companion of TV’s modern-day cowboy turned private detective, Ken Boon. But, for a man who spends a good deal of his time leathered up and on the saddle of a real mean machine, it comes as something of a surprise to discover that the man who plays him, Michael Elphick, doesn’t like bikes at all.

In fact, the 45-year-old actor is positively terrified of them! “I find motorbikes much too dangerous,” he confesses. “It’s Ken Boon who rides them, not me. I don’t drive a car either, for the same reason, really.

“So far I’ve been very lucky. This is my sixth series and I’ve never fallen off. I almost did this morning – when I clipped an old tram rail – but somehow I managed to stay upright.” Michael laughs with relief in his voice.

The only place where Michael’s ever contemplated getting on his bike off-screen is on the deserted roads of Portugal’s Algarve, where he’s recently transformed an old farmhouse into a luxury holiday home.

“That’s it up there,” he says proudly, pointing to a photograph stuck onto the side of a cabinet in his personal caravan. And although he loves being with his family – girlfriend Julia and their 16-year-old daughter Kate – in their idyllic holiday home, his hectic workload often makes it difficult for him to get there.

Michael recently presented ITV’s cookery series, The Absolute Beginners’ Guide to Cookery, with co-host and old chum, actor Don Henderson (better known as Frank from The Paradise Club). “The series was aimed at people who don’t know how to cook even the most basic things, Michael smiles, “and it was great fun to do. We made plenty of mistakes and they were all screened.”

And there’s yet another helping of Elphick coming up in November on ITV when he stars with John Thaw in the TV adaptation of the Kingsley Amis novel Stanley and the Women.

His role is one that’s painfully close to his heart. “I play a drunk!” he laughs. “Ironic, isn’t it? I haven’t touched alcohol for three years and then I get offered this part!”

In 1988 Michael’s battle with the booze led him to check into a drink-dependency clinic, where he lost two stone following a strict exercise and dieting regime. Today, he looks lean, tanned and bursting with health.

“I’ve got a lot more energy now – and a clearer mind” he says. “Although there are moments when I fancy a drink, I know it’s too dangerous for me to have one. Maybe one day I’ll be able to, but I’m not ready yet... In the meantime, I stick to mineral water and fizzy pop. I’ve no particular favourite - it’s all muck!”

Life’s a drag for Rocky

Acting the dimwit and getting bossed around might not be the most glamorous of roles, but playing Ken Boon’s gormless assistant, Rocky Cassidy, does have its consolations, says Neil Morrissey. “I get to ride a Norton Commando, which is a brilliant bike”, he beams.

And whatever excitement his character misses out on screen, 29-year-old Neil certainly makes up for in his spare time. A drag-racing fanatic, he dreams of taking to the track: “I’d like to have a go, but my contract states I can’t participate in any dangerous sports in case I have an accident and hold up filming. But I’m hoping I’ll be able to once the series is over.

“I first got interested in the sport when Michael Elphick and I were asked to open a drag strip. Neither of us had been to one before, but I was hooked from the outset. The cars reach 245 mph in 5.8 seconds. I’ve seen a few nasty accidents but it hasn’t put me off. If it wasn’t so risky, the adrenaline wouldn’t start pumping and it wouldn’t be so exciting.”

Bike-mad Neil reckons his love of speed is down to working on Boon, where he was first introduced to motorbikes. “Michael and I had to learn to ride a bike. I enjoyed it so much that I went out and bought one!”

In between filming the current series of Boon, Neil and Michael flew to Italy to star in a more traditional kind of cowboy movie – a comic Western. The film is called The Ballad of Kid Devine and stars Jesse Birdsall in the title role.

“I play an Irish bounty hunter called Cas Malone. It gives me a chance to dress up as a real cowboy – stetson, waistcoat, leather chaps, boots, the lot. The only problem is I can’t ride, Fortunately, they got around that by changing the script so that my character has an unusual difficulty with horses, too!”