Former EastEnders Michael Greco tells Viv Hardwick he's unhappy with TV offers since he quit the BBC1 soap and is off to America in search of a new challenge. Meanwhile, he's happy to play a gigolo for one more week at Darlington.

MICHAEL Greco agrees with the view that TV hasn't made the most of his acting ability since he quit EastEnders two years ago. The man who made copper-toned Beppe di Marco the housewives' choice says: "I've not really been offered a lot of TV to be honest, which has been great for theatre because I could concentrate on going back to my roots. I'm really enjoying myself, but I do want to go back to TV and possibly film. I don't know what it is really, I suppose that producers have their favourites and stick to them whether the audience like them or not."

Asked if this is a reference to the two Kemps (Ross and Martin) who have emerged from the soap with plenty of TV contracts, he responds: "With Martin, he's such a lovely guy I wouldn't say anything untoward about him. I suppose if you sign a contract you're given the choice to do certain things or not.

"Funnily enough I'm seeing Martin at the weekend because we haven't spoken for a long time and we're playing golf together... so he may be able to give me a few pointers about getting more TV work.

"I think Martin and Ross were both very, very popular characters with the audience and ITV saw that and they've said 'come over and join us and we'll give you a lot of money' and that's a great position to be in. I'd never turn down that kind of chance. I wasn't offered that and I've gone the other way and started over again and doing some hard graft."

On the golfing front, Greco's aim is to get his handicap down to single figures from 13 at the Richmond course near his west London home while former soap co-conspirator Kemp has worked more than played recently and plays off the maximum handicap.

On the acting front, Greco's about the leave the new touring comedy, About Alice, written by Charles Laurence involving a famous sculptor's widow (Gwen Taylor) being introduced to a gigolo (Greco) as part of a deal to publish the artist's memoirs.

He says: "I kind of like older women personally, I like a woman with experience who kind of knows who they are. That's probably one of the few things that I have in common with my character and that's why this guy is a gigolo.

"There is an honesty about what he does because he tells everyone that he's doing it for money and wants to retire one day to sail the seas in a boat. I quite admire him that way.

"It's something similar to myself in that I am what I am and if people like me that's great, if they don't there's not much I can do about it."

Greco is currently pinning his hopes on a New York agent coming up with a US TV deal before he returns to the West End as Billy Flynn in Chicago during the summer. The actor may have got rid of his famous Beppe goatee for good, but will do whatever it takes to make the breakthrough in America where his name is being linked to a heroic heart-throb role.

"One of my dreams is to live and work in New York. I'd even repeat my West End role of Billy Flynn in Chicago on Broadway for free to be honest, just to say that I'd worked there," he jokes.

Greco views EastEnders as the reward he got for five or six years of hard slog in the theatre.

"Now I hope that the audience can see me on TV or film and say 'good for him, he's back'. It can be frustrating that people just talk about EastEnders, but that's the reason I'm talking to you today. It was only a small part of my life it kind of pales into insignificance when I'm doing theatre in a town that's miles from home. There are more things to life than EastEnders. It's strange because I left two years ago and people still think I'm in it."

Greco says that it would be ludicrous for him to go to another soap but "would never say never" about returning to EastEnders having made a swift exit from Walford to Leicester with his son in the soap.

"At least I left in my own car and I didn't leave in a taxi-cab," he laughs.

"I haven't deserved a lot of the things that have been written about me and a lot has been false and because it gets my back up I react and then the tabloids seem to write something even worse. I'm not going to get into the ' poor me' syndrome but that's why I've been trying to keep out of the limelight as a celebrity for a while."

Having made just one fleeting appearance on TV as a dim-witted security guard for BBC1's Murder In Mind, Greco agreed to host ITV1's unsuccessful one-off live event Britain's Sexiest despite declaring he'd never appear on I'm A Celebrity like co-host Kerry McFadden.

"I've turned down every celebrity reality show going, but I do love watching them especially I'm A Celebrity. I wish I'd put money on Kerry winning the last one because I said all along she'd win it."

Meanwhile, the About Alice role of gigolo goes to Ben Hull, formerly Lewis of Hollyoaks, who will be in Darlington with the cast to rehearse.

One hopes that Greco, with or without Britain's best-known goatee, can continue his own successful love affair with acting.

* About Alice, Darlington Civic Theatre, Tuesday-Saturday. Box Office: (01325) 348 888.

Published: 06/05/2004