Robson Green looks well as he saunters into the Tyneside Coffee Rooms (as was) …. smiling, tanned and pretty fit, I’d guess.
Well, he’s been out and about – shooting a second series of Channel 5 drama The Game, with co-star Jason Watkins, in sunny Spain, followed swiftly by his new venture, The Northumbria Mysteries, set in some of Northumberland’s fabulous locations.
And this on top of all those outdoor Weekend Escapes and, I’d assume, as much fishing as he can pack in.
He’s not done badly for a miner’s son from Dudley.
And because I’ve been around a while too, I remember his early North East theatre days, performing in memorable productions of Rod Wooden’s gritty Newcastle drama Your Home in the West, staged at Live Theatre, and at Newcastle Playhouse (now Northern Stage) in CP Taylor’s wartime play And a Nightingale Sang, also set on Tyneside.
After expressing gleeful surprise that we’re both still alive – he always was a cheeky bugger – he proceeds to tell me about this latest addition to his CV, a BBC daytime crime drama made by North East production company Lonesome Pine and for which there are high hopes.
“It was a job I was offered last year. My agent sent me the first two episodes, one written by Gordon Anderson (director and executive producer) and Aschlin Ditta (executive producer), and the other by Gordon.
“I’d worked with Gordon before (on Grantchester), I knew Aschlin’s work and I’m a big fan of what Lesley Douglas does at Lonesome Pine (which she co-founded) – and it’s probably the first time, genuinely, that I’ve done a drama where I’ve been able to walk to work.
“That was a real carrot, but why I wanted to do it was also due to the writing and the spirit of the piece, which has a lot of levity in it.”
Robson might have been exaggerating a little about walking to work. Northumberland’s a big place. But he’s also a bit of a “road geek”, he says, and who doesn’t love a spin alongside Hadrian’s Wall?
His character is Joe Ruby and it’s his relationship with Rose O’Connell, played by Rotherham-born Liz White, that’s the “central engine” of the piece, he says.
She’s actually Detective Inspector O’Connell – quite a glamorous cop, it must be said.
They live, explains Robson, “in this constant state of misunderstanding.
“He’s a petty criminal with a gambling habit; she’s an Oxford graduate.
“They don’t like each other. They get on each other’s nerves. They say nasty things to each other but when they’re apart they wish they hadn’t said those things.
“But what I love about this series is that you have two people who have a connection and in order for the crime to be solved each week, they have to connect.”
Thinking back to Grantchester (in which Robson also played a detective inspector, Geordie Keating), he says: “In that series people confessed their sins to a vicar, which is a very good tool for a detective; here I have a criminal past which is also a great tool for a detective.
“Joe just keeps turning up and she says, ‘I don’t want you here’. And he goes, ‘Well, you will when I tell you what I know.”
Ruby is trying to go straight. In the first episode (to be broadcast on BBC One at 2pm on Friday, October 23, and on iPlayer) we find him at Brinkburn Priory on a rehabilitation scheme overseen by Simon Callow’s avuncular Father David.
“It’s a great nod,” says Robson, “to anyone who’s made mistakes in their life or lived with regret or is seeking redemption or having to live their life differently, and that’s the root of my character.”
Ruby, though, is no mug. He’s shrewd, a poker player – though how successful is open to question.
Robson’s been here before. In 1995 he played Rory Connor, poker-playing protagonist of The Gambling Man, one of the Catherine Cookson adaptations produced by Tyne Tees TV.
Those might be remembered as halcyon days, with plenty going on at the Tyne Tees studios on City Road.
I remember interviewing Robson there, along with other cast members, but the studios have long since been demolished and replaced by student flats.
Says Robson: “I think what’s important… I mean, how many times have you heard it said that we need to make more drama in the North East and how do we do that?
“It’s about getting the writing talent up here and getting the commissions, and now we have a local commissioner, Helen Munson (of the BBC), living here and she’s getting things done. She really is.
“And the money’s there to get those things done and I think it’s important that a local production company in the North East is making quality, classy drama that’s going to be shown around the world and watched by millions of people.
“I think that’s something to celebrate.
“But what you’re also doing with things like this is creating an infrastructure so there’s enough work here for people to stay, and to train other people. Hopefully this will become a self-sustaining thing.”
With that, Robson is off to be photographed with a carton of popcorn emblazoned with his cheerfully handsome mug.
But it’s worth noting that he has previously put his money where his mouth is, investing back in the 1990s in Coastal Productions, dedicated to North East film and TV production, and supporting the youth theatre group at Live Theatre where he cut his teeth as an actor.
Recently he voiced a new BBC film that was projected onto Alnwick Castle as part of a push to grow the North East’s screen industry.
In the Coffee Rooms (a Tyneside Cinema special event space now) Robson’s vacated seat is quickly filled by actor Gurjeet Singh, another key member of the cast who plays near namesake Detective Sergeant Raj Singh in the new series.
Originally from Manchester, Gurjeet was largely unfamiliar with the North East when he came to shoot The Northumbria Mysteries, although he did perform at Live Theatre back in 2017 in a play called Goth Weekend.
“I’ve explored the Peak District and the Lake District,” he tells me.
“My mum’s from Edinburgh so I’ve been around Scotland, but I’d never been to Northumberland and since doing the job I have become like a part-time holiday rep, telling everyone to come to the North East because it’s so beautiful.
“The beaches, the landmarks, the people… it’s a really special place.”
Having made his pitch to be brought back for a second series (should it be commissioned), Gurjeet explains his character.
“He’s the young detective on the block. He’s done his training and worked hard, but he’s sometimes a little too enthusiastic, and he has a love of cop films.
“I feel that when he and Rose are solving crimes, Raj is playing the movie version of it in his head.
“Rose is there to bring him back into reality. But he’s out to prove himself and when Joe enters the scene the pressure’s on because essentially Joe does Raj’s job a lot faster and maybe a bit more efficiently than he does.”
Gurjeet says he’d always wanted to be part of a detective duo, “Homes and Watson, that kind of thing.
“But when you get into an acting project, you never really know how it’s going to roll out and, honestly, this job has been the gift that’s kept on giving.
“I remember after auditioning and meeting the team, coming away just thinking I’d absolutely love to work with them.
“I don’t know where Robson gets his energy from. He’s so playful and, honestly, every day was a joy. We had so much fun making the show.”
He believes it adds something different to the crime genre.
“In Britain we do make a lot of crime drama but I feel there’s a playful tone to this – and there’s also Northumberland which plays a huge part.”
He’s right, although it’s fair to say fictional Northumbrian crime scenes (thanks to a recent long-running crime series on another channel – whisper it, Vera) are not wholly unfamiliar to TV viewers.
This series, though, does have Robson.
“His knowledge is incredible,” enthuses co-star Gurjeet, suddenly serious and wide-eyed.
“Everywhere we went, he’d go, ‘See that bird up in that tree? It’s there because of this or that’. He knew everything. I’ve been describing him as the North East’s David Attenborough.”
I think I smell another series down the line!