In a world away from the chain mail and swords of Merlin, Alexander Vlahos recently starred as a National Service recruit in BBC One’s daytime drama, Privates.
Following the lives of the last intake of young conscripts, Privates aired over five consecutive days last month and is released on DVD this week.
> Buy Privates on DVD on Amazon.
The year is 1960 and the Cold War is at its height, but an old way of life is drawing to a close, and a new breed of young man is standing up for England, Rock & Roll and the right to think for himself… but they’re in the wrong place. Gangsters, teddy boys, peaceniks, posh boys and one certifiable loose cannon are about to find themselves in ‘Two Section’, deafened, blinded, choked and disciplined into one tight fighting machine whether they like it or not. And like it they won’t.
CultBox recently caught up with Alexander to find out more…
How would you describe your role in Privates?
“My role is Private Keenan and his nickname in the show is a ‘pinko pacifist’. He’s basically a CND protester, the sort of person who would never choose to voluntarily enrol in the army. He’s been forced to join though the last ever group of conscripts, he’s had his call up papers.
“When he arrives he seems to be the one who rebels the most against the militarily aspect of conscription but as the episodes go on he slowly starts turning out to be very good officer material, even though he doesn’t realise it, he starts to be the sort of leader of the pack”
Keenan and Mordred are both really ‘breakthrough’ roles aren’t they?
“It’s bizarre because I did Privates before Merlin, it was my breakthrough role, my first lead in carrying a TV show and then getting Mordred straight afterwards was just a bit of a shock really. And then the whole weird thing about BBC scheduling is that Mordred comes out first.
“People who are my supporters are seeing me as Mordred first and then in 1960’s army garb, I suppose it’s a bit of a shock!”
So the change in costume was from period uniform to chain mail. What’s most comfortable?
“Neither! The army costume was comfy but itchy, very itchy, a very starch filled costume. It couldn’t have been more real and you were never thinking ‘I could wear this forever’.
“The chain mail is an absolute curse of a costume, when you have it on it weighs a ton, when its hot outside you bake, when its cold you freeze. There is no happy medium whatsoever. To be honest with you I’m just looking forward to a drama where I just get to wear t-shirt and jeans!”
You’re struggling for your craft!
“I complain about it but Privates was such a learning curve for me. It was an incredibly tough filming experience so it was a massive culture shock for me to literally finish it on a Friday and start Merlin on a Monday, with the difference in scale of the production.”
For Privates you had a haircut that we guess you only filmed once?
“Yes, they did a wide shot and quite quick close-up, and then got the clippers out and let the cameras roll saying ‘Alright, here we go – Alex, I hope you get your lines right!’ I’d never done a shot like that where they say ‘Right we have one take at this, your hair’s not going to grow back!’
“What they had cleverly backed up was that the clippers were on one side of my hair and if anything went wrong they were just going to move it to the other side of my head. Which I thought was very clever of them.
“I’ve never done something like that on television before, as an actor your appearance is like your identity but you’re going on to a show and within half an hour of the first episode all the characters are completely shorn of their identity. It’s bizarre!”
There’s a pretty magnificent chase sequence in the first episode. How was that to film?
“We had to do it a lot of times and it was particularly tough as Mark Silcock, who I was chasing, didn’t understand running at fifty percent! I’m sure he won’t mind me saying this, but Bryn our director would say ‘Okay guys, let’s just go for fifty percent on this one’ and I’d always have to keep a certain amount of distance between Mark and myself for continuity, and he would absolutely sprint!
“He was like Usain Bolt! I was really struggling behind him, it was difficult to film but it was so much fun. That was our very first day of filming.”
Do you think you’d have benefited from a stint of National Service?
“It’s a tricky one because me personally, I would be really struggle to lose my identity, my individuality as Alexander, my personality traits. I would really struggle to lose my clothes, they way I brand myself and just that person that I think that I am. I would struggle to go into that uniform aspect of the show.
“On Privates what happened to us boys is that we became incredibly united and incredibly like a band of brothers, we were very tight as a group and did everything together. Eating together, drinking together, it was the whole thing so I can completely see the plusses and the minuses towards National Subscription and even just towards just the Army in general.”
“My family had no experience of National Service so it was one part of history that I know absolutely nothing about. You cover the great wars in history classes at school, you always know what happened in the Second World War, but I think what Privates is doing is different.
“I’ve said to people that I’m doing this army drama and they go ‘Oh great, what war is it?’ because with television that’s instantly what an army drama is about a particular event or a war, but I say that nothing really happens it’s just actually the last of the conscripts in 1960 and they say ‘Oh okay, that’s interesting’. I think it’s really brave of the BBC to do something that’s not as quite action packed as people want from a soldier drama.”
You’ve had some success in BBC One daytime drama before, of course…
“Yes in the daytime slot, Doctors and The Indian Doctor, which people probably know me from before I did Merlin and then Privates – so what’s happened to my career trajectory is that I’ve done a lot of daytime! Daytime drama is great and it needs to get more recognition for the quality of work that is in that.”
We guess with iPlayer people can follow these shows when they choose now though…
“That’s what iPlayer has given everyone; you don’t ever have to watch television in the right order again. With iPlayer and Sky Plus you can just set out your day with a week of television programmes and then it becomes about the quality of the drama and not what time it goes out, which is good!
“With Privates on our contract we’ve got another two years optioned, of course optioning on a contract doesn’t mean anything if the BBC feel we’ve had out stint, but it’s good and the final episode ends with an absolute major cliffhanger, so it would be a pity not to go back to it.
“I’m really looking forward to the reaction of Privates because I think it would be bizarre for all of us boys to go back and do another series.”
Fingers crossed that happens then!
“When we filmed The Indian Doctor it got very good critical success and then quite a lot of awards, and then the BBC decided to bring it back for a second series but by that point half the cast were already busy doing different stuff. So with Privates if they do decide it will go again I hope each of us will be available for it.”
> Buy Privates on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy the Merlin complete Series 5 DVD boxset on Amazon.
Look out for the final part of our exclusive interview with Alexander on CultBox next week!
> Read the first part of our exclusive interview with Alexander.
Watch the Merlin Series 5 trailer…
What did you think of Privates? Let us know below…