FORMER screen tough guy Patrick Mower is now playing an altogether different role in the hit musical Crazy For You on the Manchester stage. He took time out to talk to Mark Woodhouse between rehearsals

PATRICK Mower was once the most famous "hard man" in England.

Tough roles in series like Callan and Special Branch established him as a sex symbol star of the seventies.

As Superintendent Steve Hackett in Target he became a role model for cool cops with attitude, even if the fashions now look a bit dated.

But after years of success playing maverick detectives, Patrick made a conscious decision to break the mould and desert television for his first love, the theatre.

North West audiences who only remember him for his TV roles may be surprised to find him singing and dancing in the hit Gershwin show Crazy For You at Manchester's Palace Theatre.

But his new role as impresario Bela Zangler is not a radical departure for Mower who, despite being a relative stranger to our television screens, has been constantly in work on stage and screen.

A graduate of RADA, he has appeared widely on the London stage, has played roles from Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw and even set up his own theatre, The Act Inn, to produce and direct. His decision not to appear on television has not been from want of offers.

"The reason I don't do more television is because the standard has gone down so much," he told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

"I'd rather do something really good on the stage than do something just for the money on TV.

"I didn't become an actor to be rich and famous but it does amaze me how well known I still am when I probably haven't done a major television role for eight years."

Indeed, Patrick made the deliberate decision to do no more than two series each of his most successful "cop" shows to avoid being typecast.

"I knew the pitfalls of becoming a character rather than an actor," he added. "Look at Lewis Collins. Nobody remembers him for anything other than The Professionals because he did it for too long." Having said that, Patrick is soon to star in a major new television series, though details are still under wraps. And he has also starred in a new film thriller, Triple Exposure, in which he plays a photographic processing plant owner who discovers his wife is having an affair.

Triple Exposure, which was filmed in the North West, is currently in post-production.

However, his main work has been on the stage, most recently in an acclaimed production of the always-controversial Lady Chatterley's Lover in which he appeared each night stark naked as Mellors.

He finds it rather sad that the media have tended to concentrate on the shock value of the sexual aspect of D H Lawrence's work rather than its deeper meaning.

"It was not about Lady Chatterley having an affair with a bit of rough. It's about the two different classes coming together and the way they behave - it's a very underestimated book." As well as adding another string to his bow, Patrick's new stage role in Crazy For You has allowed Patrick the chance to re-explore some of his roots.

Although born in Oxford, Patrick's mother Peggy is originally from Oldham and her two sisters still live there.

While rehearsing Crazy For You in Manchester, he was able to take his mother for a stroll down Coronation Street, as she is a big fan of the soap.

And he is enjoying performing before North West audiences in the show which is the largest production in the country at the moment, coming complete with a company of 45 actors and musicians and two vintage cars on stage. "People assume it's an old musical but it was created four years ago. It's loosely based on the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland film Girl Crazy but it takes the best Gershwin songs and weaves them into a new story."

The show, also starring Tim Flavin and Fiona Benjamin includes Gershwin classics like "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "Someone To Watch Over Me" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me".

"It's a great team effort," adds Patrick, who is married to writer Anya.

"The whole thing is so happy and buzzing it's impossible to come out without a big smile on your face. I find myself watching in the wings with my mouth open!"

Crazy For You runs at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, until October 12.

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