A Stockport barber has spoken about the ‘crazy’ experience of appearing in the latest episode of Happy Valley as a prisoner giving Tommy Lee Royce a haircut in his cell.
In a gripping scene which aired in Sunday night’s episode of the hit BBC show, villain Tommy received a haircut from a fellow prisoner in exchange for four cans of tuna.
The gripping scene featured the character, played by James Norton, lose his long scruffy locks and grown out beard in favour of a short back and sides with a clean shaven look.
Gaz Curley, from Stockport’s Cutthroat Jacks barber shop, said he was invited to take part in the scene - which featured the haircut done on camera for real - after being recommended to the show’s director by make-up supervisor Donna Dean.
“Donna was doing hair and make-up on the show and the director wanting to use a real barber in the scene to make it obvious they knew what they were doing,” Gaz told the M.E.N.
“I’ve been doing hair for 25 years now and I own a couple of barber shops and an academy where a lot of our students go on to work in hair and make-up for film and TV so it just came off the back of that, really. She thought I would be great for the job so she got me in touch with the director and it just went from there.”
Gaz said the haircut itself took around 40 minutes to complete with cameras capturing every moment. The scene led many viewers to feel hot under the collar, with one fan saying: "Dammit. I now find Tommy Lee Royce attractive again."
“It was all one, continuous shot, basically,” he explained. “They just filmed us as we got to it. They wanted me to use clippers that looked like they were from a prison and they were pretty terrible - I kind of just had to hack away at his hair. We just had our own bit of barber jargon going on as if he was in the shop.
“James had grown out a lot of his hair and beard himself, but had some extensions added in for effect so we needed to cut the scene for him to take them out. After that, we gave him a full haircut in the green room and styled it ready for the end of the scene where he handed over the tins of tuna and all that.”
Gaz said he was buzzing to be invited to take part in the scene, which was filmed early last year, as, like most of the country, he was hooked on Happy Valley since it began in 2014.
“I’m such a big fan of the show,” Gaz said. “I’ve watched it from the get-go so to be asked to do it was such a big deal for me. It’s just amazing.”
Off camera, Gaz said actor James, who many are now tipping as their favourite to be the next James Bond, couldn’t be further apart from his portrayal of Tommy Lee Royce.
“I can’t stress how much of a nice guy he is,” Gaz detailed. “He’s tagged me in Instagram posts, sent me messages to say when the scene would be on and even mentioned me on The One Show last week.
“He’s a really lovely bloke. He’s gone out of the way to help me, which he really didn’t need to do. The fact he remembers my name a year on is just incredible.”
As a big fan of the show, Gaz said he was excited to see James switch on his portrayal of the show’s main villain in front of him and said it was 'inspirational' to witness.
“We were in the green room for a bit of time together and he was asking me loads of questions instead of it being the other way round,” he explains.
"He was just such a nice guy. Then you’d see him get on set and, in the corner, he’d be doing press-ups and shouting at himself to get into the character. He’d just come into the room a completely different guy and you’d just know that James had been left behind and Tommy had walked out there instead."
Since airing on Sunday, Gaz said he has had a great response from people about the scene and said he plans on taking his newfound claim to fame to the bank and relishing every moment.
“I’ve had to keep quiet about this for a year,” he laughs. “So I’m going to make sure I milk it for everything it’s worth now. I’m going to have the scene on repeat on the TV in the shop just to show off. You won't be able to stop me from talking about it.”
You can follow Cutthroat Jacks on Instagram. Happy Valley continues on BBC on Sunday night.
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