Brookside star Philip takes that good life feeling on stage

Feb 4 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

STEVE BURBRIDGE finds that Philip Olivier’s return to Newcastle is a bitter sweet experience.

LIFE is good for Philip Olivier, the Liverpudlian actor who shot to fame as Timothy ‘Tinhead’ O’Leary in Brookside.

He is back in Newcastle with musical Never Forget, which is based on the greatest hits of Take That.

“People sometimes seem to think that it’s the story of Take That, but it’s not,” explains Philip.

“Basically, five guys get together to form a Take That tribute band and I play Dirty Harry, an ex-stripper.

“He isn’t the sharpest tool in the box but he’s a real fun character to play because he’s always two steps behind everyone else.”

It is Philip’s first professional stage role but he has amassed an impressive list of television credits, playing Adam Tyler in Hollyoaks: In The City, Mark Stone in Missing and Steve Morrison in Holby City.

He also won Channel 4’s The Games in 2005 and competed in last year’s Celebrity Come Dine With Me, but was beaten into second place by Christopher Biggins.

It is his role in Brookside that Philip remembers most fondly.

“Getting that job was a bit of a childhood dream come true,” he says.

“The house where I used to live was situated right next door to where Brookside was filmed and you could run across the bank and look over the fence and see them filming.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘One day, I’d love to be in that’. When I got the job, and turned up for my first day, the security guard said, ‘Aren’t you one of the kids from round the estate?’”