The full interview in the Mirror:
Kelvin Fletcher mourns Emmerdale legend Clive Hornby
Exclusive by Alun Palmer 26/07/2008
If Emmerdale heart-throb Kelvin Fletcher scoops an award at the forthcoming National TV Awards, his triumph will be tinged with a terrible sadness.
The last time he stepped up to the podium to accept a gong for his role as Andy Sugden, he was accompanied by his friend and mentor Clive Hornby, who played his onscreen father, Jack.
The pair shared the prize for Most Spectacular Scene at the 2001 British Soap Awards for a dramatic plot involving death and arson.
But if Kelvin - up for Outstanding Serial Drama Performance - is named a winner at the TV Awards in October, Clive won't be at his side.
Sadly, Clive - a soap legend who played the flatcapped farmer for 28 years - died earlier this month, aged 63, after a battle with cancer.
For Kelvin, who was among the star-studded mourners saying goodbye to him at his funeral last week, it was a particularly hard blow.
Clive had mentored him ever since he joined the soap as the Sugden's adopted son, when he was a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1996. He looked on him as a father figure and credits Clive with making him the person he is today.
Speaking for the first time of Clive's death, 24-year-old Kelvin is visibly moved.
"It's not really hit me yet," he says, after a day's filming at the soap's studio in Leeds. "There is such a massive void there.
"The minute he went there was a huge hole. There are certain scenes now that you think he should be in and he should be there.
"He was definitely a second father to me, without question. He was a massive part of my life from 12 years old.
"My dad wouldn't get jealous but he knew how much I thought of Clive.
"He'd say, 'Oh, you off to see your other dad today?' He was always laughing about it.
"My dad once said to me, when me and Clive did a scene together, 'You looked like father and son there, Kelvin."
When Clive, who was Emmerdale's longest-serving cast member, fell ill in January he insisted he would return. But it wasn't to be. No one working on the soap was prepared for the shock of his death. And his huge presence still haunts the set.
"We knew he'd been ill for a while but like anything else you don't accept it," says Kelvin. "He had been off work for a couple of months and what was the hardest was to do scenes saying we missed Jack.
"We would say, 'Oh Jack's on holiday, I wonder when he's coming back.' It was hard to do that.
"But I spoke to Clive on the phone all the time. I was looking at my phone the other day and I saw an old message from him that made me laugh. He was always asking how things were at work. He said: 'I am missing everyone at work and send them my love. And how are you?' "And I thought, everything he's going through and he is still asking about me and other people. Bloody hell, that puts everything into perspective. It showed you what kind of guy he was."
Oldham-born Kelvin was not yet in his teens when he won the part of Andy and formed a special bond with the man who played his adoptive dad. Previously he had got parts on Heartbeat and Cracker.
"I had already done some TV work," he says. "When I arrived at Emmerdale, Clive was the one person I got really starstruck about. It was weird, I was there with my dad and he said, 'There's Jack Sugden.' "He was lovely, very welcoming and absolutely massive.
Then to be told that not only was I joining Emmerdale but I'd be working with Jack as his adopted son was so good.
"It was weird. It sounds cliched to say I didn't think it could get any better but it did. I was always working with Clive, and learning off him has made me the person I am today. I have so much to thank him for.
"When you think of him you just smile. He was one of those people who smiles and you smile with them. He was honest and genuine. There were times when he said what was on his mind, whether you liked it or not. If you were ever late he'd give you a piece of his mind. And at the same time you grew more fond of the guy.
"He was my favourite actor but I don't think I ever told him that. I didn't want to blow his trumpet and in case he didn't say the same about me! He'll be sadly missed." While he has been mourning Clive, Kelvin has also been in the thick of things at work.
It has been a gripping few months for his character. Andy has changed from a mildmannered farmer to a womanbeating bully, venting his aggression on wife Jo (played by Roxanne Pallett).
Things get even nastier next month, when Andy discovers that smitten Sam Dingle (James Hooton) has a huge crush on Jo.
At first, Kelvin was wary of the drastic change in his soap alter ego. He says: "When I first heard about it I was a bit nervous. I didn't know how they could do that to my character, how can Andy change so much? For years he had been a likeable and sympathetic lad who has been through pretty much everything. Then suddenly just to change almost overnight...
"I was confident in them, but I was worried about whether they would do it justice and whether I would do it justice."
And it can't be easy when he has to hit Roxanne?
"I find it really easy, me," he jokes. "I find it really easy to be aggressive, I find it easy to cry. It's weird when you are doing it. If we are doing a scene where I have to grab her, she'll say, 'Kelvin, just go for it.'
"Everyone keeps saying to me in the street, 'Oh you are going nasty' but I don't think people have got any idea why Andy is doing it. So far they have only seen him in fits of rage, but as the story unfolds you get to see why. All these things that have happened to him through his life have been bottled up and really affected him."
Kelvin has known his own share of troubles, too. Last year he was arrested after being involved in a nightclub fight while celebrating his brother Dean's 21st birthday. "Getting trouble is always a problem when you are young and in a soap," he says. "It is hard handling it.
"Sometimes I have not handled it the best because at the end of the day I am just a young, normal lad.
"I have done Emmerdale since I was 12 and there has never been a time when I could just be myself. I still get massively hassled and it is the one worst thing about the job. I don't know why I get it, I don't know if I have a face that just asks for it.
"People say, 'You are that d*** off Emmerdale'. These are people who are older thanmy dad, they are grown men, and they are saying this to a young man. And I think, 'Am I that much of a threat to you?'
"You have to learn to walk away, you have to learn to cope. 'Oi, Emmerdale is s***!' - OK, right, walk away. Mum and dad tell me to leave it but I let it tick over in my head."
Home is still the Oldham streets where he grew up. His mum and dad live round the corner and also nearby is his girlfriend, Liz Marsland. They were childhood sweethearts when they were both seven and they remained friends throughout school. But it wasn't until two years ago, when Liz returned from university, that Kelvin realised just how much he liked her.
"We used to hang around together and go to the same school," he says. "I have known her for most of my life. So going out with her now is a bit weird!"
So how did they go from being longstanding friends to lovers?
"I think she saw my nice eyes and fell for me," he jokes. "I don't know what she saw in me. I had not seen her for a couple of years and we just got talking one night.
"We kept bumping into each other on nights out. Then we had a couple of dates."
He laughs: "She's a fashion buyer but she doesn't have any input on what I wear."
So if Kelvin looks a state at the TV Awards he has no one to blame but himself.
To vote for Kelvin in the National TV Awards go to
www.nationaltvawards.com
