AUSSIE HUNK HAS STRETCH ON BILL (21/4/04)

From the BBC's Pure Soap website:

For ex-Neighbours hunk Peter O'Brien, an upcoming stint on The Bill proved to be an arresting experience.

"As a jobbing actor, more often than not you get an episode of something here or there," he told Pure Soap, "but this was really nice because it was a chunky six-parter.

The longer jobs you can get always want six or 12 months out of you, so this was a really nice one to do. I really enjoyed it." So how has it been joining one of this country's top shows?

"I've worked in things that have been done at an absolute sprint, like a 100-metre race," he reveals. "Then I've worked on films, which is like running 10,000-metres - you've got forever to do it in. But this one is kind of like doing a 400-metre run. It's pretty fast, but you've got to maintain a constant speed."

The Aussie actor then added, in a slightly puzzled tone: "Er, I'm not a runner, so I don't know why I thought of that analogy!"

But what are the chances of Peter returning to The Bill once these six episodes are up?

"I'm not killed off, and it's been left open-ended," he reveals, "but there's been nothing thrown forward about coming back at this stage. There might be in the future. Who knows?"

You can catch Peter in The Bill from April 26.