EE: Arthur's Wrench

[faceless]

Bill Treacher's soap agony
Exclusive by Alun Palmer
www.mirror.co.uk
01/12/2007

A prison sentence, a breakdown, an affair and an untimely death after suffering a brain haemorrhage while tending his beloved allotment. Being Arthur Fowler wasn't exactly a bed of roses. But behind the scenes Bill Treacher, the actor who played EastEnders' long-suffering road-sweeper, was coming apart at the seams, too. Speaking for the first time about his hellish final years on the soap, he vividly recalls struggling on to the set in crippling pain and seeing the face of his soap wife Wendy Richard as just a blur.

Bill - who's coming out of an 11-year retirement to star in Casualty tonight - tells the Mirror: "EastEnders is a great big machine. You can't stop it and it is so hard to get off. It's all right for some people but I was really struggling to cope. The pressure was always on me. I didn't have a life and I knew I was going to end up in hospital. I was having migraines five times a day. Sometimes I would be playing a scene with an actor and I couldn't see his face because my sight would go from the migraine."

Bill, 77, who was in the very first episode, would wake up at 4am and read his script for the day before leaving his home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, for the BBC studios in Elstree. After a 12-hour day he would return home exhausted. But weekends were often spent reading scripts and filming for the week ahead, too. As the number of episodes increased, so did the pressure and Bill was soon on beta-blockers. But his health misery worsened when doctors confirmed he was suffering with diverticulitis, a stomach condition that brings on pain and nausea.

He says: "I was in a bad way and I couldn't carry on like that. One day I took my dog for a walk and thought this is bloody silly. When I got back I said to my wife 'Do you mind if I pack up my job?' She said 'You have been there for 11 years, it's time to get out'." The producers, however, were not so keen and repeatedly put off giving him a leaving date.

"I put my notice in November 1994 and I didn't actually leave until November 1995," he explains. "They just wouldn't accept my resignation. They kept saying don't and I said, Sorry I can't do it any more'. Then someone asked me to present the Ulster Orchestra in concert. I only accepted so I could turn round to the BBC and tell them I had another engagement. I didn't want to lie. They then said they wanted me to do another Christmas storyline. And I said no, I simply can't."

Things did not immediately improve after Bill left the soap. He suffered a form of post-traumatic stress and struggled to cope with normal life. Totally burned out, he retreated to his home and the care of his wife Kate. "I was wrung out," he says. "For a few months I couldn't understand why I wasn't going somewhere and doing something. I saw a doctor but it wasn't depression." However, gradually, and with Kate's help, he slowly started to recover. "Eventually it all went away," he says. "Now I go swimming two or three times a week, go for a Jacuzzi and steam room. I take the dog for a walk and just relax. It's brilliant."

Bill had not wanted to join the soap when first approached to play the downtrodden husband of Pauline Fowler. But he was persuaded by creator Julia Smith. "I asked how long it would be on for and she said 52 weeks," he recalls. "I said 'I can't do that, I'll never see my family.' She then said the part was written for me. I went away and thought about it and after three days I thought 'Don't be such a bloody fool - of course I have got to do it'."

By the time he quit, aged 65, he was ready for a life of retirement. EastEnders had knocked some of the passion for acting out of him. He appeared in a few films and last year featured in a few episodes of The Bill. But Casualty is the first time he's been tempted back to the BBC since he left the soap. "I liked the script but I forgot they do it in Bristol so I had to drive all the way over there," he says. "Still, after I'd filmed it I said to my wife maybe I should do a bit more because I thoroughly enjoyed it."

Bill plays a security guard who gets run over. "I end up getting strapped into one of those stretchers they use to bring people down from mountains," Bill explains. "Then they all went away and left me in a sitting-up position and I couldn't move - they were just walking away. They were a great crowd, though." The BBC was also after Bill for the Christmas Doctor Who special but not even the charms of co-star Kylie Minogue could tempt him. He says: "I would have liked to have done that but I suffer with my back and I didn't want to hold anyone up. I'm just not a youngster any more, am I?"

Both his children are in the industry. Son Jamie, 32, has already appeared in EastEnders while daughter Sophie, 28, works as a production assistant. But for Bill no role will ever replace poor old Arfur in the hearts of the public. "I still get fan letters and I'm recognised in the street," he says. "People just stare at you and come up to you. An old git like me being mobbed. It's nonsense, isn't it? I was in Portmeirion four years ago and all the shopkeepers came out along the high street. The word had got round. Then some coaches unloaded and all these women started screaming. I looked around then I realised they were coming for me. My wife and mother-in-law were in the car absolutely wetting themselves. I was mouthing to them 'help me, help me'." And with that unlikely thought, Bill retreats to the comfort of his rural home - miles from the shadow of the Square.

Rise & fall of Arfur Fowler
1985 An unemployed Arthur Fowler is introduced to the nation. Viewers follow his despair as he looks for work.

1986 Broke Arthur steals the Christmas Club money. He's arrested and suffers a nervous breakdown.

1987 Admitted to hospital, he then stands trial. In a shock verdict he's sentenced to 28 days in jail.

1992 He starts a gardening business but is soon doing more than trimming Mrs Hewitt's bushes. An affair ensues.

1995 Willy Roper nicks 20 grand from the allotment and pins blame on Arfur. Straight to jail, do not pass go.

[11antoniacourt]

What a bittersweet story he tells. On the one hand it's a good job that pays the mortgage and puts food on the table, but it took a toll on his health. Still, he's remembered and fondly admired by loyal fans.

[eefanincan]

I hadn't realized everything that he went through. Just goes to show you that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

[Skylace]

I never knew all of that either. The amazing thing is so many people think acting is just easy but they don't realize it takes an emotional and physical toll on you. I would think playing someone who is depressed and miserable all the time would be difficult. I am just glad he is doing better now.

[tec]

Excellent article Face....thanks for the post. I always liked Arthur and know very little about the actor. Having to psyche himself up, daily, to play alongside the ever lovable Pauline all those years had to have affected his life and not always in the positive manner.