Neil Grainger

Award winning TV actor and Harborough resident, Neil Grainger, made his debut in 2001 as teen pin-up Phil Berry in the ITV daytime soap Crossroads. Since then, he’s gone on to be a familiar face on British (and international) television. Most recently, he starred in The Capture and Waterloo Road  for the BBC as well as The Hunt for Raoul Moat (ITV) Say Nothing (FX) and FBI International (CBS America). With the new series of hit sitcom Smoggie Queens out in May, we chatted to Neil about his career, and how moving to Harborough is one of the best things he ever did.

You have worked all over the world, how did you come to settle in Harborough?

My wife and I lived in London for many years and I suppose, like many young families post-Covid, decided we wanted to make the move and settle in the countryside. We looked at many different areas, not too far away from London, so we could still travel in for work and auditions and, time and time again, Market Harborough and the surrounding villages came up as a great place to live and a real hidden gem. Once we visited a property in Great Bowden, we fell completely in love with the area. Harborough is such a beautiful town with such stunning countryside surrounding it. It’s now been three years since we arrived, and moving here was one of the best things we ever did.

What was your path to becoming an actor?

I grew up in Middlesbrough, doing amateur dramatics and youth theatre, and always knew I wanted to become a professional actor. At 18, I moved to London to study acting and it was there that I started working in theatre and secured my first acting agent. My first break into TV acting was 25 years ago, as one of the main characters on ITV daytime soap, Crossroads, which we filmed in Nottingham. Looking back, this was a huge learning curve for me as we filmed five episodes a week for nearly two years. Crossroads was where I learnt my craft as a TV actor.

You have been part of some amazing and iconic TV shows. What is it like to step onto the Coronation Street cobbles or stand at the bar of The Woolpack in Emmerdale?

It’s been a wonderful experience to be involved in so many iconic British TV shows, from Eastenders to Coronation Street to Casualty. Stepping onto these iconic sets is always exciting, and I firmly believe that the day it stops being exciting is the day I stop being an actor. This year was a landmark one for me, as I spent a few weeks on ITV’s Emmerdale and this was the final soap opera I needed to appear in to say that I have now been in them all. I was hoping I might get a plaque to commemorate the occasion – but sadly no such luck!

Do you still get nervous?

I would argue that every performer gets nervous. It’s a necessary part of preparing us, physically and mentally, to perform at our best. Reframing what nerves are and utilising techniques to make sure they don’t get the better of us is the most important thing. As actors, my wife and I have been working with businesses for the past 20 years, using performance techniques to help individuals have more impact at work. We recently launched a workshop we have created with local yoga practitioner, Kerry Fisher, called The Confidence Lab, which is designed to help individuals to increase confidence and deal directly with nerves and the negative effects, whether they are performing, presenting or needing to deliver an important message.

Do you prefer working on screen or in theatre – and how do the two mediums differ for you?

Live theatre is always an exciting experience as every performance is different, however, I personally feel most at home on a TV set. Theatre is about projecting a performance to fill the room, whereas TV is about internalising your performance to fit down the camera lens. The actors that inspire me are the ones who can be subtle and natural, yet powerful. TV and theatre are two different skills and I believe the truly great actors are the ones who can switch effortlessly between the two.

Tell us about Smoggie Queens and how you came to be a series regular.

Back in 2022, I worked on the ITV drama A Spy Among Friends, which I filmed in Romania with Damien Lewis and Guy Pearce. Whilst there, I met a fellow Middlesbrough-born actor, Phil Dunning, who told me he was writing a sitcom set in our home town. Cut to a year later and he’d cast me in the pilot episode, which later got commissioned, and our first series went out on the BBC in late 2024. There aren’t a great deal of TV shows set in Middlesbrough, and having spent most of my career on TV doing a variety of other accents, it’s amazing to play a character from my home town with my own accent – though I had to get a dialect coach to help me remember how to do it!

What do you have coming up over the next few months?

Due to the success of the first series of Smoggie Queens, last year we filmed a second series that launches on the BBC in the spring. So, the next few months will be taken up with doing press for the launch. In the show, I play a loveable odd-ball called Neil (the writer insists the character is not based on me, even though we share a name!). It’s such fun to play a proper comedy character. As a cast we were incredibly proud that our writer and creator Phil was BAFTA nominated, and the show has won quite a few awards. We can’t wait for people to see the new series. The show is about a gang of LGBTQ+ friends, but the comedy is universal and it’s reaching a wider audience than just the queer community. As a show, Smoggie Queens is a silly, out and out comedy and a complete joy to work on.

---

Series Two of Smoggie Queens starts this spring on BBC Three with Series One available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. For more information on The Confidence Lab, contact: [email protected]

Issue 29

Read the latest issue