Drinking Penguin Back before a radiation leak wiped out the crew of Red Dwarf, Dave Lister had a gang of regular drinking buddies. One of them, Selby, was played by former Eastender David Gillespie - and, as he reveals to Mr Flibble, there may not have been all that much acting involved...

2 March, 2001

How did you start acting?

At school, as early as - as everybody does - the nativity play, I suppose. I sort of got hooked on it then. I was in all the drama societies, and at the age of 16 I went to the Comedians at the Nottingham Playhouse, which had a very young Jonathan Price in it. I think it was that that decided me. Drama school would be the next step. I was late going there, I was 22 - I went to Webber Douglas.

What was your first paying job?

My first paying gig - that was in 1982 when it wasn't easy to get an Equity card - I got mine being, the typical thing, the back end of a cow in Pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. I'd been going to Stratford and performing in their variety nights for a couple of years prior to that, doing sketches every month.

What were the sketches?

They'd all been written by very good comic writers, we had the opportunity of working with wonderful people like Barry Cryer, John Junkin and Victor Spinetti. Performing what they'd written, with them taking part in it as well.

Was comedy something you had a particular urge to do?

Not really - I like everything. Everybody remembers you for the last job you did, so you can get branded as a comedic actor or a straight actor. I think any actor just wants to do whatever comes along, really. "Whatever comes along" - that's wrong; but a wide variety of work whether it's straight or comic... or 'other'. (Laughs)

More David Gillespie on...

• Interview
• Starting Out
• Losing Inhibition
• Top Tens
• Biography

Right hand provided by Andrew Ellard