Tim Hughes talks to soap star turned washed-up transvestite showgirl – Richard Grieve

MOST people know him as a rugged heart-throb in Neighbours, a suntanned medic in Home and Away and a gay farrier in Emmerdale.

But they are about to see Richard Grieve as never before – if, that is, they can recognise him.

The Australian actor is embracing his feminine side and dressing up as a glamorous transvestite for camp stage romp Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

It is, he says, a role he is relishing.

“I’d never been interested in drag before,” he says. “But I am really enjoying it. There is a theatrical transformation, and make-up is key. You wouldn’t recognise me.”

I caught up with Richard in Manchester where he was starring as Bernadette, ahead of the production’s opening in Oxford next Monday.

The award-winning show tells the story of three friends who travel into the Australian outback looking for love and adventure. The big-hitting tunes include such hairbrush diva favourites as It’s Raining Men, I Will Survive, Hot Stuff, Go West and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – which only add to the sense of freewheeling sisterhood.

“Bernadette is a great role,” he enthuses. “She’s a transsexual who has gone through the mill. She’s a cool old bird but has been around the block and is a little washed up. She is grieving for the loss of her husband, but fights her battles with wit and humour.”

The character is based on a real person, who, he says, remains a source of cool inspiration.

“She’s based on one of the first people to have a sex change operation in Australia,” he says. “She was very famous and glamorous and was the lead dancer at a sophisticated club called Les Girls, where couples and businessmen used to go. It was like the Moulin Rouge.”

Despite his success in the role, Richard admits that when it was offered by his agent, he initially turned it down. “I said I wasn’t right for Bernadette,” he says. “I didn’t know how to approach it. But I said I’d give it a go, and it was enjoyable.

“There was obviously a woman in me waiting to come out. It comes very naturally to me. But they say within every man is a feminine side.”

Richard appears alongside Oxfordshire’s own Jason Donovan, who stars as Tick, the role Richard played in the West End.

It is, he admits a huge change from the other roles for which he forged his name – Sam Kratz in Neighbours and Lachlan Frazer in Home and Away, as well as stage performances as Gaston in Beauty & the Beast, Otto in Noel Coward’s Design For Living, Frederick Winterbourne in Daisy Miller, John Brotherston in the play There’s No Place Like A Home, and Reverend Moore in Footloose.

And though it does chime with that of his other big TV role, as another strong gay character, Jonny Foster in Emmerdale, he insists it is coincidental, despite his own homosexuality.

“They had no idea I had been in Emmerdale, or had even seen it,” he says. “But it’s nice to have the opportunity to represent gay and transsexual people. Homosexuality is so normalised in law and society, but that hasn’t just happened alone. “It’s through TV, theatre and being more prominent.

“Twenty years ago, the gay scene was underground and people would get turned away from restaurants. Now people can get married.”

With the production spending a week in Oxford, he says he can’t wait to get here – particularly after its incredible run in Manchester. “I’m looking forward to it,” he says. “It’s really well received. The audience has been insane, especially on the opening night, which felt like a rock concert. “When every character has come on stage they get a cheer. We had to hush everyone down!”

Richard insists he has never felt more proud of a role.

“The language and what the character does fits me,” he says. “I’m able to be clever and funny – the role allows me to shine!”

Priscilla Queen of the Desert runs at the New Theatre, George Street, from Monday to Saturday, March 2. Go to atgtickets.com/oxford
Tickets are £10-£35.