After a warzone, I just want to try a little tenderness
Star’s Commitments role after Ukraine
Corrie bad boy Nigel Pivaro said getting back on stage is a lot less stressful than reporting from a warzone.
He swapped the cobbles playing Terry Duckworth to become a journalist but now can’t wait to perform again.
Nigel, 62, said even he is amazed he won the role in musical The Commitments after 16 years away from acting.
He said: “I’ve been out of the acting game for a little while now and I can’t wait to get back into it. I’ve not given up on my journalistic career, I’m just putting it on the backburner for now so I can have some fun in this musical.
“To be honest, I had no intention of coming back into the business until I bumped into a playwright who told me showbusiness was missing me and why could I not do my two jobs at once?
“After that, I got the itch and made a few overtures with an agent. It was a bit of a slow start as things have changed a lot since I went away but I began to pick up some radio stuff and voiceovers.
“I was offered this amazing role but Covid kicked in – but now we are ready and raring to go and I can’t wait. I’m hoping the audiences are going to love it.”
The dad of two, who was held at gunpoint while working in Ukraine in 2014, is looking forward to taking on the slightly less life- threatening role as “Da” in the stage version of Roddy Doyle’s gritty novel. The book also spawned a hit movie which featured songs such as Try A Little Tenderness and Mustang Sally.
Nigel, who wi l l perform in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, said: “In 1999 I decided to return to education as a mature university student. I emerged with a Master’s degree and then trained to become a journalist – the only job other than acting that I’d always wanted to do.
“While reporting on the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, I started to surreptitiously take pictures of my interpreter but t was really trying to take pictures of what was going on. Straight away they were on to us and I was up against the wall with a Kalashnikov in the back. My life was saved by the inter vent ion of my Ru s s i a n - s p e a k i n g interpreter, who faced this lunatic down. “Watching what’s happening in Ukraine today really breaks my heart as I saw first-hand how beautiful the country and its people are. Seeing it decimated is horrific.
“My new musical theatre role is a world away from my old one and I’m looking forward to the change. I will go back to journalism. I’m just taking a break for now.”
It’s been 35 years since Doyle published his bestselling novel about a group of poor northside Dubliners who come together to form an Irish soul band.
Nigel plays “Da”, the cantankerous Elvis- obsessed father of band organiser Jimmy Rabbitte.
He said: “Even though he is not a member of the band, he is a key character who says s**** a lot. I can hold a tune but I’m glad my singing is limited in this musical to a few bursts of Elvis hits.”
And he can’t wait to get back in front of Scottish audiences. He said: “One of my first girlfriends was from Springburn,
Glasgow, so I spent a lot of time up here and fell in love with the country.
“I have performed quite a lot in Scotland and one of my proudest moments was winning the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1st Award in 1987 for the play No Further Cause For Concern. It was a hard-hitting play about prison life and was one of the reasons I stopped my initial run in Corrie.”
But Nigel admitted he will always be remembered for being the wayward son in arguably Britain’s most famous soap family. He said: “There is no getting away from Terry Duckworth when you still look like him at 62. He was part of soap family royalty and I feel honoured to have played him alongside the legends that were Liz Dawn and Bill Tarmey – they were my family off screen as well as on.”