Steve Pratt finds out how Tim Healy worked up the stamina to play Captain Hook in panto in Newcastle after months of filming Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the tropics.

The actor talks honestly about facing up to the gossip about his marital problems involving his wife Denise Welch.

GEORDIE actor Tim Healy owes his trim new look to his Auf Wiedersehen Pet co-star Pat Roach. On location in the Dominican Republic, he watched the former wrestler go off to the gym every day despite the heat.

"I thought, 'one day I'll go with him'. But I didn't until eventually he said to me, 'going to come with me?'. We started training together and continued to train back in London three nights on, three nights off," says Healy.

The fruit he eats during the interview is a sign that he intends to stick to his fitness regime. "I've lost me belly," he says, patting his now-flat stomach.

He's not doing his usual weight training at present, sticking to press-ups and a twice daily "workout" playing Captain Hook in pantomime in Peter Pan at Newcastle Theatre Royal. He's played most roles in pantomime and is loving being evil Hook despite the punishing schedule.

"I've been going to the gym for five months and I feel a lot better," he says. "Thank God I did, I wouldn't have got through this if I hadn't. I do get knocked around a bit as Captain Hook, and it's hot under the wig and heavy velvet coat. "I'm loving doing this panto. But ask me in three weeks time and I probably won't be because I'll be knackered and exhausted. It's great because you can go over the mark. You have discipline in acting and with panto you can just stretch it."

The interview came the day a newspaper published a story under the headline How Tim Has Put Pain Of Marriage Rift Behind Him, accompanied by a picture of him slumped in a chair in front of his dressing room mirror.

Many other actors would have cancelled press appointments after such publicity, but Healy and actress wife Denise Welch have always been open and accessible to journalists no matter what. She famously carried on with a planned panto launch - again at the Theatre Royal - the day after a Sunday tabloid published an embarrassing story about her.

The pair, who have two children, are still together despite difficulties over the past year. Healy clearly accepts some of the blame, pointing out that he's only been home for ten days in the past year because of work commitments.

"That's terrible and puts all sorts of pressure on you," he admits. "If a job comes in and it turns me on, I want to do it. If it doesn't, I don't. We'll have to see what the New Year brings."

Former Coronation Street actress Welch has been equally busy. She's currently rehearsing for a revival of The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice in Manchester, where the couple have a home, and joins the cast for the new series of Down To Earth. That returns to BBC1 on Sunday at 8pm, followed at 9pm by the return of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

That took him on location to the Dominican Republic. Not that it was anything like a holiday as they worked 12 hours six days a week while out there. "You'd get back in the evening, learn your lines and go to bed," he recalls.

"We were out in the Third World. It was quite an eye-opener how the people out there live. We used to turn up with all these trucks and the people were living in tin huts, eating mangos, with no TV or anything. They looked at us as though we were Martians, but within two or three days we were using them as extras."

Making Pet is a labour of love, as far as Healy is concerned because the writing is so good and the cast are all great friends and enjoy working together.

He hints that this may not be the end of the road for the series. The BBC has asked for a Christmas special for 2004.

Before then, Healy will be seen in the new Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer comedy series Catterick on BBC3 and then BBC2. "I'm playing the most boring man in the world. I'm in a bar all the time. I have some really long speeches and by the time I get to the end everyone has gone. We laughed all day long making it," he says.

His last comedy Breezeblock Park failed to transfer from BBC Choice to either of the main BBC channels. He reports the series was a big hit in Northern Ireland.

"I went across to do a chat show like Parkinson and it was being shown out there every night. Everyone loved it in Belfast," he says. "It really cheesed me off because the head of comedy at BBC didn't get the joke, so it didn't go out over here. It's a shame people never got the chance to see it."

He'll also been seen in coming weeks in an episode of the latest batch of Dalziel And Pascoe detective stories on BBC1.

Once he's finished with Captain Hook, his plans are undecided. "I've been asked to do a few thing but don't know what I want to do. I want to get home for a break," he says.

* Peter Pan continues at Newcastle Theatre Royal until January 18. Tickets 0870 905 5060.

Published: 02/01/2004