REGGIEBABE to Return??????? [Archive] - Soap, Drama and Spoiler Forums

alan45

01-06-2008, 10:16

From Todays Sunday People

RETURN OF REG HOLLIS

HELLO HELLO HELLO.. WHAT'S GOING ON HAIR? Prim-and-copper Jeff set to rejoin T V's Bill EXCLUSIVE
By David Collins
Tormented Bill star Jeff Stewart has been in secret talks with producers to make a sensational comeback as TV's favourite bobby - but he will have to smarten himself up a little bit.

The actor who played prim-and-proper PC Reg Hollis in the ITV cop show looked more like an undercover drug squad officer last week with afro-like hair, scruffy beard and unbottoned denim shirt.

But Jeff, 52, who slashed his wrists hours after being told he was being axed in January, has had talks with the show's bosses about returning in a special edition.

An ITV source said: "We've been in contact with Jeff since he left. He stays in touch with the show. Producers have been in talks with him about a possible comeback. At first he may appear in a few small cameo roles. But we can't rush it and it has to be right both for the show and for Jeff.

"If the right script comes up, then we might see the return of Reg to our screens."

Jeff, who lives in a £1million house in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, has struggled since being treated at The Priory clinic in 2006after a breakdown.

He had further treatment at The Priory after slashing his wrists in his studio dressing room in Merton, south London, five months ago following the end of his £150,000-a-year contract.

Jeff, who had played PC Hollis since the show began in 1984, later admitted: "It's true I was in a bit of a state. In fact I'd hit rockbottom and was on medication.

"But there is no way I would ever take my own life and I can't really explain what happened that evening."

Scots-born Jeff was a close friend of another tormented Bill star Kevin Lloyd, 49 - detective Tosh Lines - who drank himself to death 10 years ago after he was sacked from the show.

Hope this is True as it will show the producers are actually listening to the FANS

alan45

13-08-2011, 03:51

AMERICA has fallen in love with an unlikely new movie hero - daft Reg Hollis from The Bill.
Actor Jeff Stewart - who played the lovable sap for 24 years - has won a Best Actor award for his latest flick at the Manhattan Film Festival.

Under Jakob's Ladder also won Best Film at the world-renowned event - setting gobsmacked Jeff up for international acclaim.

The movie breakthrough comes just three and a half years after despairing Jeff made a suicide attempt after being axed from his role as PC Hollis.

Yesterday the 55-year-old was still reeling in shock from his change of fortune.

He revealed: "When they said, 'The best actor goes to Jeff Stewart' a cold shiver went from the tips of my toes to the top of my head and to the end of my fingers.

"I heard the announcement but it was like, 'Did he really say that?'

"It felt unreal and the others at the table were hugging me.

"I slowly walked up on stage. I said to the audience, 'This is absolutely extraordinary. This is amazing'. I thanked everyone.

"I said, 'It's been a hell of a journey'."

Lovable ... Jeff Stewart played Reg - with help from hair gel - for 24 years
Jeff had been ambling along cheerfully in The Bill with no thoughts of movies when producers told him Hollis was finished in January 2008.

He had been going through tough times in his personal life and his whole happiness revolved around being with his mates on the show.

Then he felt blind-sided.

So in a state of shock, he went back to his dressing room and slashed his wrists. He told The Sun: "When producers said the character was going it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"An old friend of mine was supposedly helping me at that period and supporting me and when push came to shove hadn't been there for me - this sent me into a depression.

"I felt I had been badly let down - and then came this news.

"I just remember going to the dressing room and time seemed to go very quickly."

As blood flowed from his wrists Jeff started to black out - and suddenly had a change of heart.

He remembered: "That's when I thought I had better get some help, because nobody had come to the dressing room.

"So I called the front desk.

"It's very sobering. What I hadn't had time to do was to process what I had been told."

Jeff was then taken to hospital by ambulance from the studios in Merton, South West London.

He said: "I didn't see a counsellor, it was evident I was OK and I never worried how it would affect my career.

"I thought, 'I have a choice, you can either stagnate or blossom'."

He blossomed - first in terms of bushy facial hair and then in terms of a run of small film roles.

Award-winner ... Jeff Stewart in new movie
Fans were shocked when newspapers ran pictures of the bearded, wild-haired actor at the end of 2008 - thinking it was a sign he was still suffering a breakdown.

But Jeff said the look was a determined bid to separate himself from the clean-cut character he had portrayed for so long.

He said: "I didn't cut my hair for three years. It was a thought-out, deliberate choice.

"I thought, 'I have to look as different as possible'.

"With Reg I had to put an enormous amount of hair gel on to tame my curly hair into that sharp side parting."

And the change of barbering habits worked spectacularly.

He smiled: "I did four jobs with that look."

The biggest of these films was Under Jakob's Ladder.

He landed the lead role when pal Phil Willingham, a fellow actor, told him US producers were looking for a Brit in an independent film based on a true story.

Jeff dazzled them with his ability to do different accents in a phone audition before flying to the US and winning the role.

He plays Jakob Seel, a German living in 1940s Soviet Russia.

New film ... Under Jakob's Ladder
Jakob is thrown in prison by Stalin's secret police after saying a prayer at a funeral in the strictly anti-religious state.

He then tries to survive in a corrupt jail where his cellmates are being executed one by one.

The film was made in 21 days on a £200,000 budget, by brothers Robert and Nann Nunoz - grandsons of the real-life Jakob.

After winning the US awards at the Manhattan festival for independent movies on July 31 it will show at the London and Berlin film festivals.

It is then expected to be picked up by a European distributor.

And modest Jeff reckons his success is all down to those long years on the ITV police soap - which was axed two-and-a-half years after he got the boot.

The actor, who lives in Richmond, South West London, said: "The amazing thing on Under Jakob's Ladder is that all the other actors were method actors.

"There was one guy in the film who doesn't eat and feeds his rat and at lunch this guy would ignore the fantastic spread put out by the caterers and eat some dry bread and a tomato.

"The cast would ask me, 'How can you be talking and making us laugh and then go into a take and it's perfect?'

"I told them what you see me do is what we do in England.

"The Bill was like being at school when you are all mates and everything was hilarious.

"In the morning you left all your cares at the door and it would be banter all day long.

"If life was difficult it makes it bearable. One of the funniest was Ben Roberts (Inspector Derek Conway), he was absolutely hilarious because his material was very blue. We would fall down laughing!

"Trudie Goodwin (Sgt June Ackland) was very funny, Bernie Nolan (Sgt Sheelagh Murphy)... unless your stomach muscles were feeling strong you wouldn't have been able to stop laughing.

"I was in this cop show, my character was very different to me, and I could pick it up and put it down.

"I used to refer to The Bill as the university of television. I didn't want to leave."

The award-winner smiled: "But if we all knew what was round the corner we'd be very clever."