Giant stunt double means fight trouble for Hoskins

Bob Hoskins had to do his own fight scenes for a TV drama after programme-makers sent a giant stunt double.

The Hollywood star is 5ft 6in, but production staff on BBC One show The Street inadvertently arranged for a stand-in who towered a foot taller than him.

Hoskins, whose Hollywood roles have included Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, said: "You could say I've done a few fight scenes in my time, but this one was quite tough. I wound up doing my own stunts because, when the stunt man turned up, he was six foot six.

"Then the director said he wanted it really violent. I know how to act - it's getting bashed up that's not such fun."

In the programme - to be screened on Monday, July 13 - he stars as a pub landlord who gets involved in a brawl with a local gangster.

He stars alongside old friend Frances Barber, who plays his wife, Lizzie: "We've known each other for ages through a mutual friend, Derek Jacobi, who used to be my next-door neighbour. Frances and I have wanted to work together for years, and now we finally have the opportunity."