Dave Hill - No longer the face in the crowd

You'll know the face. As well as playing the owner of the pub where the lads did their strip in The Full Monty, Dave Hill's craggy features have been showing up in films, theatre and on television for the past 30-plus years.

Name any British television series from the past couple of decades and it's a fair bet Hill's been there: The Bill, Coronation Street, Harry Enfield, Pie in the Sky, Chef, and many others.

Now, the Yorkshire-born character actor has taken a more permanent post, plodding the beat as PC Pete Redfern in Britain's hit cop series City Central, which begins on Prime tonight.

Creator Tony Jordan wanted the show to be a kind of Z Cars for the 90s, though with its close-up camera work and odd angles, it's more like NYPD Blue with a Mancunian accent.

London-based Hill says: "I'd been avoiding playing policemen because there was a time when that was all I was offered. Then this one came along and I liked the energy of the people involved, the fact they were trying something new, looking at the cops, not just the crimes.

"Me? I'm coasting along on the back of all that youthful exuberance," he laughs. My character, Redfern, is an old hand who hates to arrest people because of the paperwork. He's grouchy and bad-tempered ... and I'm sure some of my friends would say I'm like that."

He doesn't sound it on the phone, his conversation frequently punctuated with a bellowing laugh.

Other bobbies Hill has played have included an occasional slot on the Ruth Rendell Mysteries: "I was chief inspector in that one, but I only really had one scene, repeated again and again. Any time George [Baker] wasn't solving the mystery fast enough, I had to go in and give him some grief, and - ta-rah - the crime'd be solved.

"City Central tries to be more real. Before filming started we did a bit of going around with policemen and, believe me, a hell of a lot of their work is luck. Any Sherlock Holmesian acts of astounding deduction were sadly minimal. A lot of the time they just hope for a miracle."

Hill had what he considered a minor miracle in his life, when The Full Monty took off round the world.

"It was extraordinary, what happened to that film. For me it was just another one of those jobs. You go along for a few days, see all your mates, do the job and forget about it. Then it become the biggest British film of all time.

"Actually, I didn't forget about the filming. I have to admit when we filmed the strip number it was one of the most exciting days of my life ... about 300 Sheffield women going absolutely bonkers at 9 o'clock in the morning. I thought, if they're like this now, sober, what are they really like at these shows?"

Monty led to a role in the American series Highlander, then along came City Central, and for the first time in his long career Hill accepted a prominent role in a potentially long-running series.

"I've usually - rather stupidly - avoided regular series work, saying: [puts on Larry Olivier accent] 'I must return to the theatah'.

"Now I've finally discovered that very nice it is, too. And my bank manager is no longer looking askance."

As a result, people not only know his face - which they've always done - but can now add a name. "Recognition is nice after 30 years. A lot of people now come up and say hello, whereas before they'd clock me and just look puzzled, trying to remember where they'd seen me.

"And no, I don't mind the attention. I have to quote my old mate Brian Glover [the late British character actor, also best known for his gritty northern roles], who said: "Fed up o' it? It's part of what I get paid for. It's grand."