Hotel Babylon A quick chat with Nigel Harman

Former EastEnders bad boy Nigel Harman talks about his arrival as the new owner of Hotel Babylon, Sam Franklin...

How was it joining an established cast on Hotel Babylon?
"I was really nervous on my first day because the show is really established now, but the cast and crew were fantastically warm and welcoming and what you see on screen is how it is on set. Add to that the great chunks of dialogue that Anna and I had to deliver on day one and, believe me, I was nervous."

Are you worried about the reaction from the show’s fans?
"There are two kinds of Babylon lovers – the out-and-out fans who unashamedly love it and the closet fans for whom the show is a guilty pleasure. I got a really warm reaction to coming into it from my friends and family; and when a show is as established as this is, with a strong fan-base, then make no mistake, the pressure is on."

How does your multi-millionaire character turn up at Hotel Babylon?
"Sam is stranded in the hotel purely by accident in the middle of a terror alert and when his flight is grounded he takes people from his cancelled flight and offers to get them all a hotel room for the night – Babylon is about the fourth hotel he tries. He turns up at Babylon to get everyone a room and finds that there are none available. He then tries to schmooze the manager, but discovers that the person in charge is in fact his ex-wife, Juliet."

Is his ex-wife the reason he ends up buying the hotel that night?
"Partly – and he falls in love with the hotel and the staff and starts to question his position with Juliet. With the terror threat over, Sam wakes in the morning to find that the stock market has crashed and he has lost all his money. The only asset he has left is Hotel Babylon. He urges Juliet to stay on as General Manager of the hotel, promises to be a 'hands off' owner and they end up being thrown together, which Sam secretly likes. In the deep recesses of his heart seeing her again rekindles some emotions and he likes being around her. He isn't necessarily trying to woo her again at this stage certainly, but there is chemistry between them and she is clearly flustered at his arrival."

Why did they split up?
"Sam has never had a proper job in his life and when he and Juliet were together he was always losing all their money – going off and investing in some weird scheme somewhere. After they split up, Sam hit the jackpot and did well in business - which is another bugbear of Juliet's."

Was it good working with Anna Wilson-Jones, who plays Juliet?
"You can't force chemistry and you can see what on paper should be great husband-and-wife teams, but if the camera doesn't pick it up then it is over. Hopefully, Juliet and Sam have that chemistry. It's not front and centre with those two – it very much bubbles under the surface and by the end of the series hopefully it becomes more prevalent. However, you can't go and have chemistry workshops... but Anna is a brilliant actor and the chemistry feels very natural for us."

Do they get together again?
"You can't rush it because it's that usual phenomenon in television – we want them to get together but as soon as they do it's all over... just like in EastEnders, if you got given a baby in the script that was it – all over! That would always make me laugh."

Have you worked with any of the other cast members before?
"Dexter and I did a show together called Abracadabra at the Lyric Hammersmith and he will kill me for saying this, but I was 10 and he was a much older, 17 or so... we were three school kids in detention – me, Dexter and Jenna Russell, who is Ray Coulthard's partner. And Jenna and I later worked together in Guys And Dolls in the West End, which is when I met Ray."

Is it true that Dexter was responsible for igniting your passion for bikes?
"Dexter was the first person to give me a ride on a motorbike and one night after the show we razzed up and down an alleyway behind the Lyric Hammersmith. So it's kind of weird that we have come full circle when the irony is, at my age, I should know better!"

Do people still recognise you as Denis Watts from EastEnders?
"Most people still recognise me from Eastenders, but they tend to call me Nigel now instead of Denis which is a breakthrough. I don't mind it that much and I'm really proud of my time in it. It's part of my life and it presented me with so many great opportunities – I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for EastEnders, but I don't think I'm ready to sit down and watch it back just yet. I will do at some point. When I think back to the storylines I was really fortunate and had a lot of opportunities. I was a 'mockney' for a while and during and afterwards I think I did talk like Denis. I remember taxi drivers were really upset when I told them I was from Surrey... they'd always ask me whereabouts in the East End I was from."