I had arrived early in the morning in London, having travelled from Cornwall the previous evening (see Frenchmans Creek). The stunt had been scheduled for that afternoon and involved being blown up by a gas oven. As it transpired it wasn’t as dramatic as it sounded, merely diving out of the way of an explosion rather than being blown up. I was here to double Stephen Tompkinson who was playing Trevor, Geordie brother of Ray (played by Robson Green). As builders, they are renovating a London house whilst living outside in a camper van. Trevor gets up in the middle of the night to have a ‘fry up’ when the faulty gas oven causes the explosion above! For this stunt, I was covered in a flame proof gel known as Zel gel. The SFX team had rigged the explosion in 3 parts, firstly the hobs would shoot flames (my cue to get out of the way sharpish!), secondly the oven door would be blown off using compressed gas and finally a huge fireball blows out of the open oven. In real time, this all happens in about a second, so split second timing was crucial.  All went according to plan and we got the stunt in one.

I was also called in a couple of weeks later to double Stephen again, this time in a scene that would have me 30ft up a falling ladder, rescuing a dangling stuntman in the pouring rain. I wasn’t told that they would be using rain effect and so I turned up with no waterproof under-clothing to wear under my wardrobe! Hence it was a long, cold night of filming.

I was brought in for this final episode of Grafters by Stunt Coordinator Clive Curtis. I’d heard a lot of good things about Clive and so it was great to get the call and get a chance to meet him. I was booked to perform a stairfall, down ‘steel’ fire escape steps with a fellow stuntman - Crispin Layfield. First of all we had to work through a bar fight in which the 2 brothers played by Stephen Tompkinson and Robson Green fight around a London pub, leading up to the stairfall. All went well with the fight, now it was time for the stairfall. Clive appeared concerned that because we were falling straight on to steel steps that we might put a hand out to save ourselves, not only ruining the shot but causing injury as well. All we could do was assure him that we would just ‘go for it’ and he’d get the shot he wanted. The cameras were set, we got on our marks, and then Crispin and I waited, slightly tense for the call of, “Action!”. When the call came, we twisted and fell down the stairs to the bottom. We remained still for Polaroid’s (so the actors could now take our place) and then picked ourselves up to a nice round of applause. Clive seemed happy with it as did the director, Stephen and Robson. The seamlessly edited final result was convincing, and I genuinely never felt a thing! Clive booked me to perform a stunt in a couple of weeks time - (see Picking up the Pieces)