EastEnders’ hard man Grant Mitchell returns to his old stomping ground this month. And his alter ego, actor Ross Kemp, couldn’t be happier about it. Phil Penfold reports.

TOUGH man Henno Garvie, leader of the SAS squad responsible for sorting out international troublespots in ITV drama Ultimate Force, would probably (off duty) burst into a room and demand a double whisky on the rocks, and then slam it down his throat followed by a pint and a further chaser. On duty, he’d probably burst into the room and shoot someone.

Ross Kemp, midway through a day’s filming for the fourth series of the TV hit, ambles slightly wearily into a hotel room near Heathrow Airport, settles into a comfortable armchair, and begs the publicity team to get him a cup of “proper tea, not the stewed stuff and d’you think I could have a few chips as well?”

Ultimate Force is now sold to an incredible 140 countries worldwide, and Kemp, who sprang to fame in the UK playing EastEnders’ hard man Grant Mitchell, is surprised that it is returning for a fourth series. “It’s a blessing,” he admits, “because while the cast has changed a little, the crew and the writers and the rest of the behind the scenes team are almost all the same people as when we started, and we all seem to work in synchronicity with each other. We all know what we’re doing and what we are capable of.”

So why are we in Heathrow, West London? Ross looks slightly embarrassed and says, “You know, we’ve been all over the world in this series, to Eastern Europe, the Americas, to India — and we’ve never ever actually left the UK! All the location work has been somewhere in the south-east of England. Today, the swimming pool of the hotel we’re in has been transformed into the private pool of a Columbian drugs dealer, and we’re supposed to be somewhere near Bogota. Incredible, isn’t it? I admire the guys who find these locations and the props people who then transform them into something exotic.

“There was a sequence the other week where Henno and his team were supposed to be white water rafting down some formidable tributary of the Amazon. In fact, the scenes were set up in a fast tributary of the Thames, virtually in the shadow of Windsor Castle. It’s amazing what a few broad-leaved pot plants, strategically placed fronds and a little ‘mist’ across the water from smoke machines can do! It looks brilliant. There we all were, with blacked out faces, running around just a few yards from the official residence of HM, and we had to be very careful to warn them in advance of what we were doing!

“I admit that it’s not Shakespeare, but then it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s in your face, highly digestible television and we’re proud of two things — what we do and,” he laughs, “what we get away with. Can you believe that rural Oxfordshire can actually become deepest Africa? It can! There are disused cement works and quarries we use which have transformed into just about everywhere you can think of — Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, the lot.”

Ross, now 41, is about to return to EastEnders, playing Grant Mitchell after having been away “for more years than I care to remember!”

He says, “People in real life do go back to their old stomping grounds, so why shouldn’t Grant? Why did I say yes? Because the BBC offered me a stonkingly good deal. The first reappearance will last for about 21 days, and then there’s a second return next year for about two months or so. The first return will fit in very nicely between periods of Ultimate Force shooting, and the one in 2006 will be when that’s all in the can.

“Then there’s the rest of the deal — the BBC has offered me the chance of directing episodes of Holby City and Casualty, which I really want to do. And they’ve said they’ll put a couple of drama projects into development for me, with at least one becoming a show or series for transmission. You don’t get better than that, do you?

“I was really interested in going back to EastEnders, given that I spent 10 years of my life there. Did I watch EastEnders every evening when I was out of it? No, only very occasionally. Anyway, Grant has supposedly been in Brazil, so he wouldn’t have known what was going on in his home patch, would he? I’m very interested in how I’ll adapt to it all because a lot of things have changed in the past few years. 

“They were making three episodes a week when I left and now it’s four, which is a heck of a lot of scripts to learn. I’m wondering how I’m going to do that, to be honest. My own feeling is that the more you dilute a good product, the weaker it gets. So if things don’t work out, I might even think about a return to Emmerdale, where I got my first TV role about 20 years ago. I believe the first rule of acting is ‘Never say never.’ Some actors take themselves far too seriously. What a miserable life that must be! I’ve always taken the view that if you work with good people — cast or crew, director or producer, that in turn makes you good as well.

“Of course there’s fear related to going back into EastEnders, but there’s always fear in what an actor does — the fear of failure. I worry about not being able to pull the ratings. But, when it comes down to it, the only people who can ‘save’ EastEnders are the writers who create the storylines viewers want. As an actor, I like the attention — as long as it’s of the friendly variety! In this deal the BBC got what they wanted, I got what I wanted, and we were all happy.”

Ultimate Force, Ross says, seems to be very popular with the forces. “RAF Lynham like us and, as far as the forces in general are concerned, I think they need all the help and promotion they can get at the moment. We’re a drama, and entertainment, but we can also do our bit. I’d have liked to have kept a bit more of the personal stories of Henno and his men, but apparently that’s not what the viewers were focused on. I like to have some idea of who a person is, and what motivates him. I think they did that very well on the old Soldier, Soldier series.

“But I’d definitely not make a good soldier in real life, I’m a scaredy-cat. I’ve got lots of friends who are professionals in the forces and I admire so much what they do, protecting us all 24/7. The show is a way of thanking them back!”

Ross says that he’d like a Hollywood offer if it came along. “Any actor who says that they wouldn’t is lying through their teeth in my book! So far it hasn’t happened but if it does, brilliant. If not, sad but let’s get on with it.”

He toured the UK last year in The Taming Of The Shrew to mixed reviews, but says he’d love to go back to the theatre. And he’s also been fronting a major new documentary series on the world of gangs. “That’s taken me all over the place,” he explains. “It was an eye-opener. I’ve been in some prisons and penitentiaries where you just don’t want to believe what you’re seeing or what you’re being told. There’s absolutely no respect for the dignity of human life, none whatsoever. I’m a grumpy bear sometimes when I haven’t had a good night’s sleep or when I’ve burned the candle at both ends, but I could never ever be compared to those guys! Was I scared? It would be impossible not to be!”

So does anyone pick a fight with him these days? He laughs, “I tend to go down to the Chelsea Arts Club a lot, and they really don’t do that sort of thing down there.”

Was he ever given a piece of advice that he’s treasured? “Well, I was told at drama school that if I found myself working after the age of 40, I’d be lucky. And here I am at 41, still on the go and with my diary full. So if that was advice, at least I’ve proved them wrong which is a very nice feeling! 

“I’ll tell you one thing though, I am awful at relaxing. I’ve got no hobbies and I’m mad when I’m not working. It sounds bizarre, but I’d love to take up fly-fishing because I think that I’d have time to mull things over. I love being in the country, the tranquillity of it all. Maybe that’s what I need. A bit more time to stand and stare!” 

By Phil Penfold/Planet Syndication.

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