I am far from being the only one whose jaw dropped and heart broke at the news that Hollyoaks had axed one of my all-time favourites James Nightingale.
There has been widespread fury among viewers both at the decision itself but also towards the cruel manner it was executed. James was brutally killed off in a car explosion by a character he had little to do with, just moments before a jump of a year, which has sparked fears that the aftermath may be blink-and-miss.
Having prominently starred in the show for an eventful nine years, it also came as a blow to Gregory Finnegan, who told Metro.co.uk that he was ‘hurt’ and what followed was a real process of ‘grief’.
But while he described to me a massive upheaval, things are looking very different and hopeful, with an already popular book charting his life and career and an open mind to future roles which will surely come knocking for the chap who won one of only two Best Actor British Soap Awards prizes for Hollyoaks.
And, you’ll be happy to know he is far from ruling out another foray into the world of soap.
Here, Gregory discusses his disappointment at James being killed off, the array of stories he has to tell in The World According To Grog, the friends he has made for life and a message to you, the fans.
How’s life for you at the moment?
I’m OK. It’s been a huge upheaval, to be honest and it takes a while to come to terms with it, obviously. It’s not something that was just overnight, that you get over straight away. The show’s been such a huge part of my life for so long.
It’s been a complicated process under the backdrop of so many people losing their jobs, so it was a kind of group thing. The whole company has gone through a period of trauma, really.
So it’s quite nice, to be honest, I feel like now I’ve come out the other side. I feel quite good about it, I feel very at peace with the whole thing, which is nice. But I wasn’t initially, definitely not. It has been a real process.
In the book I talk about going through the five stages of Hollyoaks grief and all of those things – anger, denial – I get into how my mindset was at those junctures. That’s exactly what it felt like, a grief thing, then finally coming out the other side and you can see a bit more objectively and with a bit of context and enjoy it for what it was rather than what more you could have given.
I definitely felt like I had more to give, it was a shock, there’s no doubt about that.
Are you prepared for the reaction it’s going to get?
I don’t know, is the honest answer. It might be a bit overwhelming. I announced the book and suddenly so many people have got in contact with me and I found that quite an overwhelming experience – lovely, but overwhelming. I imagine it will be something a bit similar.
There’ll probably be moments of emotion where you feel like you’ve got over it but when that last episode airs I’m sure there will be a tear shed from my side. It has been a group experience.
When you feel that the audience have taken you on board in the way I think most of them have – some of them still hate him but that’s OK. It’ll be a hard one, I think, for all concerned.
Did writing the book help you in coming to terms with things?
It did because you keep going back to it. I’d written a large part of the book long before I found out about this. I’d written it with a view to some unknown date in the future but I didn’t really have an ending and you kind of need an ending for these kind of things, where you start a journey and get some kind of closure.
Then this happened, and that really did feel like a kind of full stop. It’ll be nine years by the time I finish up, something like 700 episodes, which is kind of crazy.
I try to be as honest as possible. You’re not always going to have great times in any job, in a juggernaut like this is there will be ups and downs and there are certainly those. But the vast majority were up and I have so much love for so many people in that building and so many of the cast, many of whom you wouldn’t necessarily say were potential great mates and of like mind but it’s amazing how much fun we had and how well we all gelled together. I’m going to miss lots of people.
Will you stay in touch with people?
I hope so. James Sutton and I are great mates. He’s the godfather to Ezra, our third son and I can’t see a world in which we’re not friends for the rest of our lives. It’s funny, as an actor I’ve tended to pick up one friend per job and Kieron Richardson’s always going on about how people leave and you don’t hear from them again, and hopefully I’ll try and buck that trend.
Kieron Richardson’s another one, we’ve worked closely together for so many years and we are completely different people. We often came from completely different standpoints not just in the work but in life.
But I have such a deep respect and regard for that man and I will miss him enormously because you get a different perspective on life, one which is not yours but is equally valid and enjoyable. He was a great, great person to work with and I will miss him a lot.
What else do you cover in the book?
It’s basically a series of stories which has a narrative thread that runs through it. So you’ll start at the characters that inhabit and populate my life, from the day I was born, running through to my sister trying to convince me to jump out of a New York six storey window.
I went up for all sorts of amazing jobs in the noughties at the beginning of my career and I managed to find ways to not get these jobs in a variety of depressing, if you’re me, circumstances. I talk about how I helped launch the career of a Hollywood star. I met him before he’d ever got a job and I was incredibly nice to him in an audition and he got the job.
It was down to the last two or three for this big film and he ended up getting it. I’d been so nice I’d sort of talked myself out of a job. It was bizarre. There’s lots of silly, crazy stories.
Me and my pals getting up to all sorts, and being a young actor in London and trying to make your way and create a career for yourself, which I managed to stand in my own way many, many times.
Are you nervous about the book coming out?
I think when you put something out into the world it’s always a nerve-wracking experience. I talk about that at the beginning of the book in the first paragraph. It’s a bit like standing at the side of the stage and your cue light going green and there’s something in you just impels you forward.
I don’t really know what that is, it’s some strange masochism, I’m sure [laughs]. You do it. I’m excited, I’m nervous but I think it will give a bit of an insight into a side of the profession.
We’re so used to seeing autobiographies of famous actors, we see where they started and the journey they went on, the movies, the success and awards and all that kind of stuff. The tagline of the book is ‘The life and times of a moderately successful actor.’
That’s a jab at the fact that it’s so hard and there’s really crazy situations you find yourself in and jobs you get and didn’t get.
My journey into Hollyoaks, I don’t think I’ve spoken about it before but I originally went up for the part of a punter in one episode, playing a guy who was procuring a prostitute. I was like, ‘This is where I’ve got to, going for a one line part on Hollyoaks and I can’t believe this is what it’s come to, but it is what it’s come to so I’d better get on with it.’ It ended up working out. It’s one of those random things, that sometimes the universe comes round and helps you out.
Is it part of the excitement for you that it’s an industry where things can take you by surprise, for better or worse?
Definitely. I think you’ve got to have that in you when you start. Ariana {Fraval] and myself, we’ve rolled from one thing to another for many years now and having such a stable period has been lovely but it’s exciting for all the realm of possibilities that can come up.
My writing I something that I’ve been doing for quite a long time anyway – I’ve written screenplays and things. It’s kind of an extension of that. I’m hopeful people saw the work that I did on the show. I
’ve always had a decent reception from people, and some really unlikely people who you wouldn’t have expected to watch the show and know who I was. So I hope the future’s bright. I hope there’s lots of great things to come, but who knows?
Do you have any dream roles you’d like to do?
I’d love to say that I had an answer, but for me, playing another character for so long, you get to the point where you’re not entirely sure you could play another character. I mentally can’t necessarily see what that might be.
I’m really looking forward to opening a script and thinking, ‘Oh wow, I can see myself doing this,’ whether that be on stage or in another soap, frankly. It seems to be an occasional merry-go-round so who knows, maybe I’ll turn up on another soap at some point.
Were you a fan of the soaps genre before you joined Hollyoaks?
Our household grew up watching soaps, particularly Brookside was the big soap in our house. My mum is from Bebington, which is across the water from Liverpool, so we loved watching that all together. We watched EastEnders. My parents loved Coronation Street, completely obsessive to the point where I called my dad once and he said the normal thing of ‘You’re calling during Coronation Street,’ but I could hear cars going past.
I was like, ‘What do you mean? You’re not at home, I can hear cars.’ He had one of those BMWs that had a little screen and you could get TV but you had to stop. He said, ‘I’m 20 minutes from home but I didn’t want to miss it.’ He was parked up on the side of the road watching Coronation Street!
So it was definitely in our family as an interest but I never thought I would end up on one. That was not something I’d ever really given much thought to.
But I found the discipline of turning up every day, working really hard and the camaraderie you end up having, not only with your cast mates but the crew, the directors you work with regularly. I just loved that relationship and having that continuity of relationship.
I talk about it in the book, I went on to a film called Blitz with Paddy Considine and Jason Statham. I had a decent part and I went on all excited and it was just a total disaster. No one said hello to me, no one spoke to me. Paddy Considine ended up effectively writing me out of the whole film by taking lines of mine without asking.
It was a horrendous experience. I left thinking it’s so hard being a very small cog in these big wheels. You don’t have anyone to talk to, no one’s on your side. They expect you to come in and deal with whatever comes your way and it can be really a quite traumatic experience and to then turn up at a cinema to watch yourself and find you’ve been cut, it’s just awful.
So being in a show like Hollyoaks was lovely because you knew you were valued, you knew they were investing in your storyline. It was obvious very early to me that Bryan [Kirkwood, former Hollyoaks producer] saw the character caught the imagination and he ran with it, which was lovely. That kind of being on a show long term, you have a mutual trust that you foster.
How did you feel when you found out you were being killed off in the show?
Sad, is the ultimate thing. I don’t think anyone wants to be killed off, no matter what anyone will tell you. I certainly didn’t want to be killed off. I went into a meeting where lots of people had lost their jobs. There were certainly some high-profile casualties and I think I was probably one of those.
It was just really sad because the Nightingale family was completely decimated and I was the last man standing. I wasn’t surprised. I could see what they were going for. To an extent they want a high-profile casualty that hooks people into coming back for their three episode offering.
I’m a realist and I understand in this case I was the sacrificial lamb for that. It hurts, it’s sad. I wish there was an avenue back, but I do say this in the book – this is soap. We haven’t filmed any scenes where you saw a dead body, so you never know.
What’s your gut feeling about how the changes on Hollyoaks might work out?
I’ve not been included in anything that remotely talks about the future. I don’t know how they’re doing it. I hope so. I know too many good people in that building who I would hate to lose their jobs if it doesn’t work. It’s been a painful process already so I desperately hope that it’s a success.
I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for them. It’s a very challenging environment now and all you can do is be reactive and they’ve done something pretty bold, so fingers crossed they go for it and it’s an enjoyable experience for everyone.
You just hope that stuff like killing off characters like me doesn’t alienate the audience. I hope not but I can understand if it does.
Outside of work what do you like to do to wind down?
I’ve had much more time to indulge in hobbies in the past month [laughs]. I love to swim in open water, I’m a big fan of getting up early and doing that. I find it’s something that really calms me down. There’s no screens, you just have a moment of pure calm and clarity. I find that a really important thing for me to do.
I play terrible golf if I get the chance. I have three children who are 7, 10 and 12 so there’s a lot of driving them around to dance and football and all that stuff. It’s a lovely period of time.
Being fired has given me a summer with the boys which I probably wouldn’t have had and so far it’s been absolutely glorious. I’m very grateful for that in many ways. It’s given me a great time with them.
Your character has so many fans. Do you have a quick sign-off message for them?
Thank you for everything. The fans made James Nightingale what he was. Their support from day one was off the chart and I’ll always be so grateful for it. It really made a difference and I’ll miss being asked about him and I’ll miss everything to do with James Nightingale. He’s one of a kind.
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