When I left Bristol City for Palace, I just wanted to be playing football. I didn’t care about the money I was getting or anything. I just wanted to play because I’ve always been like that, that’s just my character.
I just felt that I might to go to university and get some real life. It wasn’t stimulating in the same way. I loved being at Bristol, but I missed the thrill of being on set.
Somehow I got a place at Bristol University. I’m still waiting for the phone call to say that they made a mistake and got the wrong person.
In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student production of ‘The Birthday Party’ at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol. Just before it began, I realised that Harold Pinter was sitting in front of me.
I do speak to a few people in non-league. There are a few people in Bristol where my family is based that I used to play with at Yate.
I grew up in a mixed-race family in Bristol. My cousin was this white guy who was interested in Parliament, Marc Bolan, Bowie. His friends were football thugs and while I was getting ready for bed, they’d be listening to all that music. When I was older, I’d go to a Jamaican sound system and there were no white people.
When I was a reporter in Bristol, which I was between the years 1954 and 1960, the newspaper would get tickets for whoever showed up to play a gig at the big hall down the road, so I saw some wonderful people. The Everly Brothers, for example.
Drama at Bristol was an academic course: you were judged on your A-levels, and there were no auditions. I did a BA General degree.
As soon as I stepped into Bristol City, I felt like I was really welcomed very well, and I felt that from the very beginning.
John Cleese was a big hero of mine. He grew up in Weston Super Mare near Bristol where I grew up; he was always very tall and gangly, but he was smart and used his physicality in a very funny way. I used to think, ‘Well he came from Weston and he did it, so there’s a chance for me.’
For 10 years while I was at ESPN, I lived at the Residence Inn in Southington, Connecticut, near Bristol. I did that because my wife had a great job in New York City, and we had a place in New York City, at 54th and 8th. On Friday, I would come back, and then on Sunday evening I would go back to the Residence Inn.
The game shapes you. I played for 20 years at all levels, apart from the Premier League. I had a disaster at Bristol City, where in two years I learnt more about myself, the industry, fans, how you get treated, than I ever learnt in my career.
I had a lot of tough experiences at Bristol City. I came there for a few quid and was getting booed off by fans, got injured. I was out of the team due to injury but also because I was having an awful time playing wise. But they were amazing experiences.
I used to live in a street in Bristol which was, depending on your tabloid of choice, either Britain’s most dangerous street or a moral cesspit. People made judgments about me on where I lived. It affected me – it affected my life chances. That is going on today with people in social housing. That, to me, isn’t acceptable.
For sheer creativity and totality of involvement, ‘Rolf’s Cartoon Club’ with HTV in Bristol was an amazing show to work on, but I think the ‘Rolf on Art’ series, culminating in the painting of the Queen’s portrait to celebrate her 80th birthday, just nudges into the favourite spot.
The Bristol Channel was always my guide, and I was always able to draw an imaginary line from my bed to our house over in Wales. It was a great comfort.
For sheer creativity and totality of involvement, ‘Rolf’s Cartoon Club’ with HTV in Bristol was an amazing show to work on, but I think the ‘Rolf on Art’ series, culminating in the painting of the Queen’s portrait to celebrate her 80th birthday, just nudges into the favourite spot.
The Bristol Channel was always my guide, and I was always able to draw an imaginary line from my bed to our house over in Wales. It was a great comfort.
I got a job right out of drama school as assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic. I’ve been lucky enough to stay in work ever since.
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