A first major acting job working alongside
Sir Laurence Olivier isn't a bad start for a rookie actor attempting
to make a name for himself in cut-throat profession. Add to that
the fact that the rookie is approaching middle age, and the achievement
is even more remarkable.
But then Ralph Riach, now in his sixties, who
plays TV John McIver in BBC1's Sunday-night drama Hamish Macbeth,
is unlike most actors. At the age of 45 he decided he could no longer
bear to be a self-employed upholsterer and gave that up to follow
his heart - into acting.
Since then Riach has never been out of work. His
TV credits include The Bill, Chancer, Dr Finlay, Taggart, Tutti
Frutti (in which, coincidentally, Stuart McGugan - Barney in Hamish
Macbeth - also starred), Rides and Casualty, among many others.
But it is as Hamish Macbeth's psychic right-hand man that he's best
known.
Riach naturally has no regrets about his mid-life
change of career. "I had been working as an architectural draughtsman,
but I gave it up because I hated it so much. I then went on to be
a self-employed upholsterer and a theatrical landlord in Perth.
Richard Todd was my first lodger."
Perth's amateur operatic society provided some
channel for Riach's acting aspirations, but the occasional production
was not enough. "I had been interested in acting since I was
a teenager, but I came from Elgin, where going into acting was just
unheard of." He finally took the plunge in 1984 and enrolled
at drama college in Glasgow. "When I realised you didn't need
academic qualifications to be an actor I just thought, You've got
to have a go. If you don't try now you have only yourself to blame."
Being the oldest in his class did not bother him. "I got on
fine, I behaved like a kid myself and I thoroughly enjoyed my three
years there."
The role alongside Lord Olivier was in Granada's
production Lost Empires, and others quickly followed. TV John came
out of the blue with a message left on Riach's answering machine
by Deirdre Kerr, who produced the first two series of Hamish Macbeth.
"I was delighted," he says. "He's a smashing character,
I shall miss him."
TV John goes out in dramatic fashion in a two-part
story, starting this week, which ends what seems likely to be the
final series. But that doesn't mean Riach has severed his links
with Plockton, the Scottish west-coast village that doubles as Hamish's
beat, Lochdubh. "I went up there for a New Year and had a terrific
time".
