Feature: Torchwood

It’s been a while since he was Jim Robinson in Neighbours. From 24 to Ugly Betty, now Alan Dale is in Torchwood…

Slowly but surely, Alan Dale has been taking over US TV. Watch any big series of the last 10 years and sooner or later you’ll see him appear, because the New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based actor has been working his way up the ranks, moving from one-episode guest shots in series such as Time Trax, Space: Above and Beyond and The Lone Gunmen to recurring roles in 24, Ugly Betty and The X-Files. He’ll be instantly familiar to many as the original Neighbours patriarch, Jim Robinson, father to Scott (Jason Donovan) and Paul (Stefan Dennis) and now, intriguingly, he’s in the Torchwood episode Reset. How did a Kiwi actor wind up in Cardiff?

“Well, that’s a long and tortuous path!” laughs the actor. “20-odd years in Australia and eight years here [in LA] and then I was invited, and up until then I hadn’t been. As soon as I was invited I grabbed it because I was partial to Britain. [I’m] a fan right from the very beginning of Doctor Who, and our family, [wife] Tracy and I, really love coming to Britain. Also, of course, my son [Simon Dale] has a radio show there on Kiss 100 so it’s nice to catch up with him.”

So that’s why Dale’s so ubiquitous: he’s got connections everywhere. “I think we do that, don’t we? You guys started it all over the world, like a disease. What we are is your progeny coming back to haunt you.”

Offered Torchwood by his agent, Dale says initially, “I wasn’t familiar with it at all, but I knew of Doctor Who and they said it was a spin-off so that was fine. We’re hooked on it now! We watch it all the time, it’s one of our favourite shows. I’m surprised a lot more British drama doesn’t get across here to be honest, because I love it.”

His Torchwood role is that of Dr Aaron Copley, a scientist who’s developed a way of curing some of the world’s most notorious ills, with the unfortunate side-effect that the cure is an alien parasite that eventually kills its host. “I spent eight-and-a-half years playing the nicest man in Australia and I actually had a bit of a hankering after playing evil, mysterious people,” explains Dale, “and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Dale hasn’t actually seen the finished product yet and wants to know, “Was the episode all right?” Assured it’s come out fine, he continues, “You don’t know; you do these things, you turn up there, four days in Cardiff, rushing off out to the Border Country in a big old house and working. They have this strange thing that because it’s a dark sort of show they shoot it all at night. It must be exhausting for everybody, having to work from three in the afternoon to three in the morning every day. I had no idea really how it was going to look, but I’m pleased to hear it’s all right.”

He’s certainly going to be remembered because in an altercation at the end of the episode he does some major damage to the team. “I feel very bad,” he admits, although it’s pointed out that he does pay for his transgressions. “Yes, of course. I always pay. One of these days I’ll get a role where I don’t pay."

by Paul Spragg

Read the full interview in
Starburst #360

Photo © BBC
Feature © Visual Imagination 2008. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Starburst #360
March 2008
ships from Feb 20 2008
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $7.99

Buy it now!

VI DIRECT
Stores Info

You can order any of
our magazines via this
secure service.
To buy this issue:

To SUBSCRIBE to
STARBURST, use these
links to our stores: