Jimmy Akingbola plays HolbyBlue’s PC Neil Parker. A hard working and honest copper, Neil has an old head on young shoulders. Having worked alongside PC Kelly Cooper for several years, Neil has slowly come to realise he’s in love with his work colleague even though she is married with children. Despite Kelly’s long-term marriage to plumber Roger, unable to keep his feelings a secret, Neil decides to take matters into his own hands. After declaring his love in a surprise confession, Neil must now face the consequences of his actions.
Jimmy chats to holby.tv about unrequited love and the art of nudity…
Despite the fact that she’s married, Neil confesses to Kelly that he’s in love with her! Does it all go according to plan?
All I can say is that dreams do come true, but sadly not always the ones you really want. Neil has to believe that Kelly might leave her husband Roger otherwise he couldn’t cope being around her so much. If she decides to stay in her marriage Neil may have to leave Holby South and work somewhere else.
He knows she’s married, why does he take such a big risk?
I think Neil likes to see himself as a nice guy and not what some of my friends call a ‘Home Wrecker’. However, Kelly confides in Neil a lot about her married life which makes it very difficult for him at times. I think his feelings made his work life so hard and complex that he felt he had no choice; he was going crazy! Also, he has doubts about how happy Kelly is at the moment and hopes that he can be the man to change that.
How does he tell her?
It is a beautiful, dark evening with a slight drizzle of rain, they are both cold and… Let’s just say he spills the beans and opens his heart in such a romantic way that he feels this has got work! Right?
How long has he been in love with her?
Let’s just say its more than 4 years! I think he fell for her from the first time they met but for some reason he was never really aware of how he felt until recently. Sometimes what we want is in front of us, but we don’t realise until it’s too late.
Neil is always getting his kit off in this series. Do you work out before filming those scenes?
Hell Yeah! It was hard work too, I had to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, all junk food and puddings were out! It was horrible.
I have a gym routine called ‘the Cinderella work out’. It starts four weeks before the day I have to take my top off. It consists of press ups, sit ups, triceps dips, back lifts and on top of that an extra hour in the gym doing a bit of everything.
The reason it’s called ‘the Cinderella work out’ is because after you have finished filming your big scene, you have until 12 midnight before it all disappears!
Do you have any funny stories from your time filming HolbyBlue?
Chloe Howman (PC Kelly Cooper) and I had quite a big scene to film for the series, so after months waiting for this scene we were pumped up and ready for it.
We were on location and about to get going when all of a sudden a plane flew overhead, so we couldn’t hear each other speak. We waited until the plane passed but as we started again another one flew past!
For the next hour we only managed two lines because planes kept flying past every five minutes. On top of that, at one point we had stray dogs barking over our dialogue too! Since we clearly couldn’t finish filming that scene, we stopped and went back another day. The same thing happened again but this time it rained! We later found out we were under a flight path! It wasn’t funny at the time but on reflection it is now.
So far what has been your favourite scene to film on HolbyBlue?
It has to be the scene we filmed on Valentines Day. I was feeling a little depressed because I was the only actor on set without a girlfriend, hence no Valentines cards. I was so miserable I had actually forgotten I was filming a scene that day where I got to kiss a very, very sexy, beautiful, hot looking woman! She was AMAZING; forget J-Lo or Halle Berry. That was the best Valentines Day and work day I have ever had! I would tell you her name but her fella is 6ft and knows where I live!
