Welsh-born actor Richard Harrington, who was recently seen in BBC’s high rated drama ‘Bleak House’ plays the role of new-boy Detective Sergeant Luke French, who is ambitious, caring, down to earth and keen to make a difference.
holby.tv meets Richard Harrington…
When Luke starts at the station does John give him too much of a hard time?
If it’s your first day at school you have to put up with a certain amount of aggro! When you come into something as male dominated as the police force and CID you have to live on your wits.
Luke has to size people up immediately and show his true colours instantly otherwise his colleagues will think he’s too weak for the job. So, when Luke gets a bit of ribbing from John, he gives as good as he gets. Luke’s a very clever bloke so he’s savvy; he may wear nice clothes and his hair might be regimented but he’s definitely savvy on the street.
As a duo do you think Luke and John compliment one another?
As a duo Luke provides the stability to John’s unpredictability. He needs to have things in place before he goes out into the city where as John completely works on instinct. John gets Luke out of a couple of scrapes through his style of policing but on the other hand, Luke’s academic style gets John out of a few sticky situations – which is why they strike a perfect balance.
He settles in to the team quite quickly, doesn’t he?
No matter where you go in the world, crime is the same. Just because someone gets stabbed in a different town to Holby, they don’t get stabbed in a different way. What people like about Luke is his understanding of the job and that’s all that matters to him.
Is his relationship with his wife heading in the same direction as John and Kate is?
Luke’s marriage is tarnished from the word go really; I think he doesn’t dwell on that side of life though. We see that Mandy and Luke love and respect each other and that rises above all. Everyone has to make sacrifices in life and at the moment, Luke has to make sacrifices for work. Luke is new to the station so he has to stamp his mark on the place so, to do that, he has to spend longer there. It’s a tough time for Luke, his mother is ill and his wife wants babies!
What other projects do you have coming up?
I have a film coming up called Hope which is a low budget movie about a woman called Hope who has lost her identity. I play a doctor who works in the Congo. He meets Hope and listens to her story and they fall in love. He ends up meeting a tragic end so it’s quite a bleak story.
