NEWS

Casualty role for young actor Gregory

Gregory Foreman - role in TV's Casualty

29 November 2007 08:40

He has had parts in a number of high profile television shows, but 19-year-old Gregory Foreman can now be seen in his biggest role yet, alongside one of the nation's best loved stars of hospital drama.

Playing the son of linchpin character Charlie Fairhead in Casualty, Gregory's character Louis is a schoolboy who looks set to attract nothing but trouble. His first appearance last Saturday saw him smoking marijuana with friends, which led to the start of a serious blaze at his school.

Louis is a long-standing but infrequent character in the show and has been played by a number of actors over the years, but the role is now Gregory's.

The teenager and his parents Lisa and Greg split their time between a home in Overstrand and a pub in London's Mayfair, called the Punchbowl, which they own.

The pub is popular with the rich and famous, with regulars including Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie.

This and the fact Gregory has already had roles in various well-known shows, several of them prime time, means he seems relatively unfazed by his career.

He has had parts in Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, Afterlife and a children's slapstick comedy called Bear Behaving Badly, having kicked off his career with a role in a London Palladium stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. There has also been an extra's role in Harry Potter.

“It's great fun, all of it,” said Gregory.

“Louis is a typical teenager I suppose, he gets into a bit of trouble and is a bit of a bad boy - but not that bad when it comes to the crunch.

“I can't say too much about the storylines, but the trouble builds up in the coming weeks.”

Gregory said the team behind Casualty ran a well-oiled operation, but that the crew knew how to enjoy themselves and were “like a bunch of big kids playing in a hospital set”.

The key relationship in the drama is with Charlie Fairhead, who is called Derek Thompson in real life - something which Gregory slipped up on in the early days of his involvement on the show.

“Derek is a lovely guy, but the first time I had lunch with him I managed to call him Charlie to his face, which I was mortified about, but he didn't mind at all.”

Although he now has a high-profile role, Gregory is still auditioning regularly.

He said: “You have to get down to it, plug away and keep going, get your hands dirty. It's a lot of fun. You get paid for having fun and not working that hard.

“But in a perfect world I would find a way of making a living with my guitar and piano, that's my passion. That and Arsenal, who are the best football club in the world!”

Gregory has finished filming for Casualty episodes up until Christmas and will be back filming next month for episodes which will be screened early next year.

Email A Friend