Accent on drama

AS soon as Steven Pinder steps through the doors of the Manxman Hotel in Blackburn, his dear, departed Lancashire accent comes flooding back.

The hotel is familiar territory to him -- as a Blackburn Rovers season ticket holder it's his stopping off point for a pint before he heads off to a game.

The accent is less familiar ground, having disappeared at the age of 17 when he went off to drama school down in London.

"It's very useful to have it there in my memory though," he said. "There wasn't much received pronunciation around Great Harwood, where I grew up, so I don't have to gen up on the accent if I need it for a job."

However, Steven's acting roles haven't, to date, been known for employing strong Lancashire accents.

Instead, the former Brookside regular has become accustomed to playing well-to-do, middle class characters like affluent businessman Max Farnham, whose philandering habits and fretful frowns simultaneously entertained and endeared him to viewers.

His latest role -- in a stage version of the Hitchcock classic Dial M For Murder -- is a little different to his TV personae, however, although he's still far from being a born and bred Lancastrian.

"My character Tony is a retired tennis star," said Steven, 43. "He's a very upper class, old public schoolboy type. He's very charming, but very manipulative."

And it appears that, since the demise of Brookside, Steven himself may have got a worrying taste for blood.

His stint in Dial M For Murder at the Lowry in Salford will be his second trip to the North West in a matter of months in a play with the word "murder" in the title.

Last October he appeared at the Oldham Coliseum as a TV thriller writer in Murder By Misadventure. Are we starting to detect a pattern in his career choices?

"That's a bit like asking John Nettles if he likes playing policemen," said Steven, a little defensively. "Murder mystery plays are a very big heading. They give you the chance to play all sorts of characters. The one thing I would say about them is that they tend to be more story-based than character-based."

In this production of Dial M For Murder, however, the Hitchcockian horror story comes clothed in '50s fashion, with pleated skirts, trilby hats and authentic sets masking the murderous intent.

The theatre company, Middle Ground, won awards last year for its production of Brief Encounter, which starred Steven's Brookside co-star Karen Drury and had a similar period appeal.

"It's a good era to go back to," said Steven. "It's just before things started to go all rock 'n' roll. I think it's a time people are very nostalgic for." In the past Steven has spoken of the spectre of unemployment, which seems to stalk actors at every turn. Since this is his fifth play since the final credits came up on Brookside Close 18 months ago, surely lack of work is no longer a concern?

"It's always a concern," he said. "No job really lasts forever. Even during 10 years on Brookside, I was always on a one-year rolling contract.

"Acting's a very funny trade. There are really too many of us. There should be a big pestilence among actors so a lot of them are killed off. It would certainly make life easier for me!"

An attack of bubonic plague is probably about the only storyline Brookside did leave untouched, during its 20 year stint in the TV soap charts.

Steven's Brookside career ended in high drama with wife number two, Susannah, falling to her death on the Farnham stairs, leaving him to marry wife number three Jacqui, the mother of his child Harry.

"There were times when it did go to extremes," recalls Steven. "But having said that, I remember long periods of time in Brookside when there was a lot of comedy.

"I got to experiment with lots of different things when I played that character. He was like the Henry VIII of Brookside Close."

None of these career opportunities would have come about, though, without the assistance of Norden High School in Rishton, where Steven did his A-levels.

Having been born in Whalley, before moving to Great Harwood, Steven's family background was hardly theatrical. His father was the bank manager at NatWest in Blackburn and, had it not been for Norden, Steven's acting ambitions might always have remained unfulfilled.

"I was so lucky to have gone there," he said. "I always had the ambition to be an actor and Norden had this amazing drama group and their own drama studio -- something quite unusual for a comprehensive in the early '70s.

"After that I joined Blackburn Arts Club, then I went to drama school in London when I was 18. It was a big shock, going to London at that age, but it paid off. My career just snowballed from there."

Now living in Chester, Steven has two remaining ambitions -- to see Blackburn Rovers score success in the Premiership and to play King Lear. And there is every chance that, should he get the chance to fulfil the latter, he could turn in an acclaimed performance.

"Over time, I've kept getting put into different categories at awards nights," he laughed. "I started off as best young actor, then sexiest actor, then best character actor. Now all I'm waiting for is an award for best old actor!"

Catch Steven in Dial M For Murder at the Quays Theatre at the Lowry, Salford Quays, from Monday, September 6 to Saturday, September 11. For tickets, call (0870) 1112000.