Gary Lucy reveals his naked ambition to play the underdog in The Full Monty stage show

GARY LUCY’S spent much of the past few years taking his clothes off in front of strangers.

No, he’s not moonlighting as a life model, he’s been playing Gaz in the touring version of unemployed steel workers-turned-strippers in The Full Monty.

“I love it,” admits Gary.

“I play the lead in it, I’m on stage the whole time. It’s always packed out wherever we go, it’s just a great feelgood show to come to see and also to be part of.

“In Britain, we like to see the underdog do well, get back on their feet, you can see yourself or someone you know in the characters and there’s that British thing about laughing in the face of adversity.

“And when we come off stage — after THAT finale! — we’re always buzzing, it’s great!”

For this tour, three new faces have joined Andrew Dunn as Gerald and Brookside stalwart Louis Emerick, who plays Horse.

“Knowing a few of the faces makes being on the road easier,” says Gary, 35.

“Louis and Andrew are just fantastic human beings as well as actors and they really help anchor the ship, if you like.

“They’re solid guys and great actors, so it’s lovely to have them on board with me and when we’re touring, it’s always nice to have that full relationship when we go and have our cheese and wine nights!

“And on stage, we know to cover each other if there’s a problem.

“You can always rely on Andrew to jump in when something doesn’t work or the projector fails — he’s always on hand like an old pro to pick up the reins.”

The fact there are three former Hollyoaks stars in the cast — Gary, Kai Owen and Chris Fountain — shows that although it’s the youngest of Britain’s soaps, even Hollyoaks has 21 years under its belt.

“Twenty-one years? Wow!” laughs the dad-of-three.

“I mean, I’m showing my age, but I was in it when I was 16, so that’s going back too many years!

“I was there when the show was the young upstart, we’d never won an award. We were the ones who used to turn up at the soap awards — along with Family Affairs — and get put in the corner!

“It was like: ‘They’re the rowdy young lot, keep them over there, keep them away from Bill Roache and Wendy Richard’ and then we started to get a bit of recognition for the work we were doing.

“We were working as hard as the rest of them — we just weren’t the elite at the time.

“I’m not surprised it’s still going.

“When I was in it, they were covering strong stories even then.”

It’s struck me that often with soaps, you stay because you become involved with a long-lasting character, but Hollyoaks seems to be like the sci-fi film Logan’s Run in which everyone is killed off when they hit 30.

“That’s a harsh way to put it, but it’s basically true!” laughs Gary.

“Nick Pickard breaks the mould on that one — he’s the Ken Barlow of Hollyoaks —that’s what we call him.

“He’s been there from the start. I don’t know how he manages to do it — he certainly doesn’t look 30 now!”

Finally, before we let Gary don his thong, did doing Dancing On Ice help with dance moves in The Full Monty?

“Not at all,” he reveals. “Fortunately, we don’t have to be good dancers. We’re not the Chippendales, we’re playing welders and security men, so any lumps and bumps we can get away with!”

The Full Monty is at Glasgow King’s Theatre from February 27 to March 4 and on tour until April.

For info, visit www.fullmontytheplay.com