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Mark Homer on Life After Tony Hills
By Larry Jaffee
Walford Gazette readers have
Facebook to thank for the following
interview with Mark Homer,
who played Tony Hills over a
decade ago for a four-year run on
EastEnders.
Mark showed up as a “friend”
of Lucy Speed (Natalie), who had
“friended” me back a few months
ago. I once met Lucy at the studio,
and Tim Wilson twice interviewed
her for the Gazette. Although I reviewed
Mark’s play, Boxed, in
London nearly 10 years ago, we
never managed to meet.
He quickly friended me back
on Facebook when I reminded him
of the Boxed review, and mentioned
all the EE actors who had
been interviewed by the Gazette
over the years and whose characters
had something to do with
Tony, including his sister Daniella
Denby-Ashe (Sarah), his father
Brian Croucher (Ted), his former
girlfriend Martine McCutcheon
(Tiffany) and her brother Andrew
Lynford (Simon).
Of course, the last might be the
most important because when last
seen, Tony was leaving Walford
with Simon for a new life in the
Netherlands. More on that later.
“A lot of people frown on
Facebook, but I think it’s brilliant,
especially because I’ve got this
new play, Farley’s Date. You let
people know it’s going on, and if
they want to come they come. It’s
better than emailing out invitations.”
Homer first mounted Farley’s
Date last fall in London for four
nights. A producer who came to
one of the performances decided to
back the show for another run, July
20–August 7 at the prestigious
London fringe theatre, the Old Red
Lion. “It’s a great intimate space,
and the theatre has got a great reputation.”
Homer wrote the play and costars
as Jace, the mid-30s, responsible
half of this buddy story,
who’s about to live the life of a
grown-up, looking forward to getting
married. He’s got a steady job
working at a bank. Farley is the irresponsible
one, still dreaming
about his long-planned drive across
the U.S. à la Easy Rider.
Our conversation takes a detour
on how much he likes the States.
“It’s so easy to travel, find a motel.
Six years ago I travelled around the
Florida Keys to Miami and then
New York. My sister lived in
Chicago for a while and I visited
her there. I also have friends in Detroit.”
Back to the new play, the playwright
explains the title character’s
motivation: “Farley’s a bit of a
poet. He quotes Kerouac, Bob
Dylan. He’s not a deadbeat, but
he’s stuck on his sofa. Just before
the wedding, in one drunken night
the two friends go over their
dreams and goals. Then the brideto-
be comes into the action.
There’s a little bit of a love triangle.
Things unfold.
“It’s been over 10 years since I
did Boxed, which I co-wrote with
Ray Kilby, who directed it – he
was a director on EastEnders. I had
a great time then, and it was great
to collaborate with other people.
Now I’m very much interested in
going my own way. It’s quite scary,
my first solo project. I’ve written
quite a few short plays. Some have
won awards. I’m really pleased
about that. Long may they continue.”
I ask him what he remembers
about his time on EastEnders.
“Really good memories. I was
there just under four years and so
many brilliant memories. My first
day one of my first scenes was
with Barbara Windsor (Peggy),
Steve McFadden (Phil), Gillian
Taylforth (Kathy), Adam Woodyatt
(Ian) and Michelle Collins (Cindy).
It was surreal going into EastEnders
because I was a fan of that
programme. It was weird. I’d been
watching it. I felt I knew all these
people, but I didn’t really. It took
time to get to know them all.”
I ask him whom he was closest to
among the cast.
“Martine McCutcheon, Andrew
Lynford, Daniela Denby-Ashe, my
[on-screen] mum, Robbie
(Roberta) Taylor. The best time I
had on EastEnders was in Blackpool.
It was the culmination of
quite a lot of work. It was so well
written, by [EE’s chief writer] Tony
Jordan. It was always fun to go
away from Albert Square and on
location. I’ve been back to Blackpool
since, and I go back to that
pier, and remember how
cold it was. It was freezing.
That’s when the infamous
kiss with Simon took place.
Tiffany comes back to tell
Tony she’s ‘ready to give it
a go with me’ and sees the
two of us together.”
Asked whether he remains
friendly with any of
his former cast mates,
Homer responds, “ I am still
very much in touch with
Andrew [Lynford]. My partner,
she helped direct something
for him. That was
quite fun for her. I see him
more than anyone. I also occasionally
see Daniela. We all do
our own thing.”
Homer had a bit of a reunion
when he went back to Elstree for
the big party in conjunction with
the 25th anniversary live episode
this past February.
“That was great, so many people
I worked with there: a brilliant
director I worked with, Philip Casson,
Gilly Taylforth, Dean Gaffney
(Robbie Jackson), Michael Greco
(Beppe), Lucy Speed (Natalie),
Patsy Palmer (Bianca) and Sid
Owen (Ricky Butcher) – they’re
back now (he says of the last two).
It was so nice to see them.”
I asked if he’d seen the Walford
Gazette during his days working at
the studio. “I remember Shaun
Williamson (Barry) and Russell
Floyd (Michael) talking about it.”
All the reminiscing sparked
more stories. “Yeah, going back to
find memories, I had such a laugh
with Roberta Taylor. When she
came in, I had been in the programme
for about a year. I remember
a scene around the breakfast
table. I was buttering toast, and I
was arguing with her, waving my
knife about. I could never do it
again – it was a pure fluke. A huge
piece of butter went flying off my
knife into the air and straight into
her eye. We were rolling around
laughing.”
Moments like that helped break
up the frantic pace that they often
worked at. “It is fast-paced. The
turnover is so quick that sometimes
it feels like you’re on a machine. It
was important to have fun whenever
we could, and we did.” Not to
mention that the actors and crew
could be in for long days, sometimes
12 hours or more.
“Yeah, they can be. When
you’ve got a heavy storyline,
you’re there all the time. In a cast
of many, you eventually get your
time. But when you don’t get your
time, the days aren’t that long. I
had my fair share of storylines that
I was really proud of.”
I ask when did he find out that
Tony was going to be bisexual?
“I found out about the bisexual
storyline about six months into
playing Tony. It wasn’t right at the
beginning. He was a bit of a wide
boy, a bit of a Jack the lad. He was
going out with Tiffany, things like
that. After about six months they
had him look at what he was, what
he wanted. They handled it beautifully.
That unfolded nicely; it wasn’t
quick. For some storylines you
have to invest in the character. And
we did. It was a surprise. Not
everyone saw it coming, and I did-
n’t when I joined. They didn’t keep
it from me. They had wanted to do
that storyline for some time. They
were waiting for the right character.
We had a meeting, and they
asked ‘How would you feel?’ and I
was like, ‘Bring it on’. That’s what
a programme is supposed to do: a
challenging storyline. It was brilliant.
The feedback was fantastic.
"I’ll always remember that. The reaction
to it was great. I got many,
many appreciative letters
saying thank you to the programme,
showing people that they
were not alone.
"These were people not from the
city who didn’t have that kind of
support [the kind Tony received].
Seeing a bisexual character on the
television they felt less alone."
After Homer left EastEnders
and did Boxed, the play mentioned
earlier, he did “a lot of theatre.”
Television roles weren’t as easy to
come by. Did he feel typecast on
telly, worrying that viewers would
only see him as Tony?
“There were some gay [TV]
roles that were bandied about. At
that time, I did think I needed to
get my head down and do some
theatre. If I took those other TV
roles people would have seen me
as Tony. I’m not surprised by that.
Everyone saw me playing a fictional
character for four years, and
it takes time [to separate the actor
from the character]. I went off and
toured in theatre. A couple of years
after that I was able to do Casualty
(a medical TV drama) and I was
able to play a different character. It
is hard to play other roles [when
you’re closely identified with one].
“In the theatre in November and
December 2008, I played a gay
character in a play called In the
Balance. He was an American. It’s
all about choices that the character
makes. The circumstances. What is
he like? Sexuality is not the first
thing that I think about, really. It
was the first time I played an
American in a political play set in
the U.S. That was one of the challenges.
And Ray Kilby was the director
and he co-wrote it. I still see
Ray quite a bit. It played at the
New End Theatre in Hampstead.”
What kind of American accent
did he use for the play?
Homer laughs. “Well, the family
was living in Florida, but they
had lived in New York for a while.
I had a discussion with Ray about
the accent. In the end, it was more
Florida. I really enjoyed it. It was
the first time I gave time to study
an accent. It was not just that I
wanted to pull it off. What I
wanted to do was crack it, and really
pull it off and excel at it. I feel
much more confident now that I
can play an American.”
What other types of stage roles
has he had? “I just played in Oxford
an upper-class gentleman in a
Charles Dickens ghost story, The
Signalman. That was great because
it was a departure for me. I’m all
about trying to stretch.”
Mark Homer did not set out to
be an actor. He grew up in South
London, left school at 16 and
promptly went to work in a bank,
where he stayed for five years.
“I got disillusioned with what I
was doing at the bank. There didn’t
seem to be much opportunity to
move up the ladder. I started to go
to the Academy Drama School at
night in Whitechapel (East London].
The tutor said, ‘You’re good
at this. Why don’t you go fulltime?’”
He ended up going for the next
two years.
“I was working at the bank during
the day. I got quite ill. I wasn’t
eating properly; I was undernourished.
I was doing lots of student
films, fringe theatre – what young
acting students do. But it was
worth it because 10 months after I
graduated from the Academy, East-
Enders casting director Jonathan
McLeish – he was a big fan of the
drama school – went to a showcase.
He remembered me. And the
rest, as they say, was history.”
Didn’t he have to audition?
“It was barely an audition. It
was a chat with the producer at the
time and one of the directors.
Jonathan and I got on like a house
on fire, cracking jokes. I think I
read a couple of lines. I almost
couldn’t go to the casting briefing
because I was in Brighton doing a
class, theatre in education. I remember
frantically calling my
agent, saying, ‘Can’t you make it
later? I won’t be able to make it.’
Luckily, Jonathan said we could
meet at 5:30. So I rushed from
Brighton and I just about made it.
It went well. I found out [that he
got the part] the day after the audition.
I got the call and I was just
over the moon.
“I enjoyed the EastEnders storyline
at the time I came in. The
David Wicks and Cindy and Ian
Beale love triangle. At the time, it
was really clicking. I was so proud
to come into something like that.”
How did his family react?
“My parents and two sisters
were tearing their hair out. It’s the
biggest thing you could imagine.
There’s nothing like it in this country.
So many people watch EastEnders
and Coronation Street.”
Did viewers ever have difficulty
separating reality from TV?
“It was quite difficult because
people [when I was out in public]
would comment what was going
on. A woman once told me, ‘Don’t
be nasty to your mother’. Sometime
I wasn’t sure if they were joking
or not. I remember a couple of
years after I left EastEnders, I went
to my local library, and the librarian
had this irate person come in
swearing. She
asked me, ‘What
should I do?’ I responded,
‘What are
you asking me
for?’ She said,
‘You’re a detective!’
I said, ‘I was
a detective on TV.’
She then tried to
play coy, ‘Well, I
know that. But you
must have done
your research.’
They believe in it
when they’re
watching.”
There’s a cliché in
show business:
“What I really
want to do is direct.”
In Homer’s
case, what he really would like to
do is write television scripts, and
especially for EastEnders, and he
feels he’s honed those skills writing
short plays. But Homer knows
of no EE cast member who went
on to write for the show, and it
would set a nice precedent.
“I know that Sue Tully
(Michelle Fowler) came back [to
EastEnders] to direct. She was
such an actor’s director, obviously.
She knows what it’s like on the
other side. There is a BBC writing
academy, which I applied to this
year. I still very much enjoy acting,
and I will always do that.”
Tony left the Square with
Simon for a new life in Amsterdam
in 1999. Are still together?
“Yeah. They’ve probably
moved to Belgium. As they got
older, they’ve mellowed. They’re
probably eating lots of chocolate.
One thing I was really please about
was that we finished on a really
positive note with Tony saying,
‘Yes, I am gay and I love you,
Simon.’ And they went off into the
sunset. I don’t know if you remember,
but there seemed to be endless
episodes where I’m: ‘I don’t know,
I’m confused.’
“We were involved in that
process actually. I was really
touched that we could be involved
in that script process. We discussed
how the end would come. It was
really nice to be on the other side
and see how much work went into
all these episodes.”
Having been a journalist all my
professional adult life, I tell Homer
that Tony’s trajectory, going from
newspaper apprentice at the Walford
Gazette to investigative reporter,
was a little unrealistic,
although it was arguably the best
job the former small-time drug
dealer ever had.
“He’s in the car on a stake-out
with Polly eating that doughnut. I
thought I was on Beverly Hills
Cop! It wasn’t long before he was
having an affair with Polly.” Mark
mentions that the Walford Gazette
is “back in the fray,” regarding a
current U.K. storyline, so stay
tuned.
“I was just talking on the phone
to a current director of EastEnders
two days ago, actually. He was a
runner when I was there, and now
he’s a director, so it shows that at
the BBC when you start if you
work hard you get rewarded.”
One thing we hadn’t discussed
in the previous 45 minutes was
how being on EastEnders was lifechanging
for Homer, who went
from obscurity to ubiquitous fame
literally overnight.
“It was – completely. It was
very strange. The lucky thing for
me is that I am in the same relationship
as when I was in EastEnders.
I was 22, so I had a little bit
of life experience beforehand, so I
kept my feet on the ground and I
tried to treat it as a job.
“I always tried to be the same as
I ever was. It was just the reaction
of other people. For some reason
people think just because you’re in
some programme you must be special.
That’s not necessarily the
case. It was always great to be
judged every second. People would
say, ‘You’re not going to wear that,
are you?’ because they felt like
they could. To a certain extent,
people just want to see you react.
“I must admit when I joined
EastEnders I felt like I was a representative
of the BBC, I was just
polite to everyone, and I would talk
to everyone. If I ever went to a
pub, people would come up and
say, ‘Could you come up and say
hello to my friend Ronnie’. In the
end, I would spend the whole night
talking to strangers and I neglected
my friends, so you need to grasp
that you should always be polite
but know where you are.”
Does he still get recognised?
“Yeah, I do, but not as much
now. Sometimes they say, ‘I know
you from television. Where do I
know you from?’ And it takes them
a minute, and then they realise
where.”
