Stephen Tompkinson, who stars as Wild at Heart's Danny Trevanion, tells all about the secrets of series four
A hippo turned up in the series. How did that come about?
Two years ago, I was on tour in the comedy Charley’s Aunt, when this guy sent me a DVD, saying he had the only tame hippo in Africa. I thought ‘You can’t have: hippos kill more human beings than any other animal’; but I watched the DVD about a couple on a branch of the Limpopo, about five hours from where we film at Glen Afric. They said ‘You should use it in your programme!’, so I showed it to executive producer Charlie Pattinson who said we’d better do it. Just to get that close to a hippo is incredible!”
And there were some new elephants…
There was a boy and a girl elephant Bull E and Three, so named because that was written on their crates: Bull E for Bull Elephant, and the number three, when they first arrived at the farm. We didn’t know Three was pregnant, but in January 2008, we got a phone call saying she had given birth to a little girl called Hannah, and then two weeks later, the people at Glen Afric had a call saying a baby elephant had just been abandoned, which often happens.
What about Hamley the giraffe and Bovril the cheetah?
Glen Afric has become a home from home. I have a dressing room with a balcony and most mornings, Hamley is there, just with his head on my shoulder.
Were they easy to work with?
You have to be careful. You don’t know what might spook them or what they’ll be skittish about, and if you’re in the way, you’re in the firing line. Early in this series when we tried to separate the two baby elephants, Three who had a chain round her foot, to let her know where her boundaries are, just ripped it out and ran.
And how’s Danny coping on his own?
He’s not been the luckiest of men. His stepdaughter Olivia has chosen to go back to England and stay with her dad, whereas her brother Evan is so besotted with Africa; the bush is very much a part of him now. His dad wants him back and he doesn’t want to leave, which doesn’t give Danny much leeway as far as the law is concerned.
And what about the newcomers?
Dawn Steel was top of my list to play Alice; I worked very briefly nine years ago with her in a film Tabloid TV. Juliet just arrived on the set to replace Hayley and hit the ground running. She and Deon as Du Plessis are hysterical as sparring partners.
