Interview: Scheming Gary
The road to Underworld is paved with good intentions, we spoke to Mikey North about whether Gary's sins will ever go unpunished...
Gary is going into business with Underworld, how does this come about?
Yeah, Gary is going to go into business with Underworld, which Sarah’s not very happy about. She’s probably got good reason to be, all is not what it seems, without giving too much away - but he’s going to get involved in Underworld, which obviously is quite ironic, given that he’s the one who brought it down in the first place.
And this is all funded with money he’s nicked from Rick…
Yeah, there’s some interesting stuff to play out. Derek comes in, who’s an old friend of Gary’s (or is he?) Gary’s obviously got Rick’s money and then he gets Derek involved as well.
Is he wanting to make amends for what happened at Underworld?
There is that side of it. There is a conscience about what happened to Rana definitely, but this is also the new Gary seeing pound signs and he’s going to try to make a lot of money off this.
Is he going to be re-building it?
Yeah, Derek is going to buy the land, then Gary’s going to be in charge of the building work. He’s not going to be the boss of the factory, Nick’s still going to do that, but Gary is going to be involved, maybe more involved than it looks on the outset!
What is Gary’s motivation? Is it about the money? What would he actually do with the money?
He’s never had financial security and this is kind of why he’s in this situation in the first place, because of money. So now, he’s got it I think he’s just going to enjoy the fact that he’s got all this money for a while and see where it takes him, but I’m sure it won’t be down a good path in the end.
Gary’s lost a lot and been through a lot in the last few months, do you feel sorry for Gary?
No, because I think he’s an idiot in lots of ways. He has made a lot of mistakes, although it’s always with good intentions at heart.
Does he feel guilty about what he’s done?
Absolutely. When it comes to the Rana thing, there’s definitely guilt there, but he’s doing what he has to do to survive at the minute. I think the Rick thing is different because his life was in danger. - but seeing Kelly (Rick’s daughter) definitely makes that harder.
What’s the new partnership with Gary and Ryan? Does Gary have a new sidekick in Ryan?
Ryan asks if he can help Gary out, I think Gary’s got to run some errands. Ryan looks after the shop for a little bit and he sells a desk that Gary has put loads of money in to Mary, and Gary thinks that Mary has stolen the money - but it turns out that Ryan has actually stolen it. Gary finds out and they’ve got a lot of stuff together where Gary’s trying to get this money back and Ryan's just messing him around. I think in the end he’s going to become a bit of a sidekick to Gary to repay his debt and he’ll work alongside Gary.
Secrets never stay secrets on the Street, how do you imagine the truth will come out, and are you looking forward to doing those scenes?
I think the way it has been done, that’s probably quite far off. For now there is a sense that he can probably get away with this, as things stand at the minute, because he kind of does admit liability, but not 100% what that entailed - but obviously with the body in the woods, that’s just waiting to be discovered at some point.