The follwing article is taken from the book "Thief Takers : the official inside story", by Geoff Tibballs, © 1996 Carlton Books. (Used without permission)

BRENDAN COYLE has the scars to prove that there is nothing phoney about the fight scenes in Thief Takers, for he literally threw himself into the part of action man Tate, and ended up dislocating a shoulder for his pains.

"In the second week of filming, I was doing a scene where two hooligans had to throw me against a wall with great force. On a take, the adrenaline's going. Actors have a responsibility, a desire to make fight scenes as realistic as possible, so you tend to exert yourself maybe more than you need to. You want to make it look good and you don't want to insult people's intelligence. We did this scene three or four times in all and on one of the takes, I felt a twinge. I felt something dislodge slightly in my left shoulder, but it didn't feel that bad. It wasn't painful, but the next time we did it, I felt the same thing."

"When I woke up the following morning, I couldn't move my shoulder at all. I went down to casualty and discovered that I'd torn my tendons, fractured a bone in my shoulder and my collarbone was now protruding, possibly permanently. I'd been padded to prevent injury but the padding kept slipping. It was nobody's fault, we just got carried away a bit. I only hope it was worth it, and that the scene doesn't end up on the editing room floor!"

Brendan's injury prevented him from doing any weight training for a few weeks, so he found it hard work keeping fit for the part. "I really noticed it when we were filming at St. Katharine's Dock on one of the hottest days of the year. I had to run 100 yards along the quay side a dozen times in a thick leather jacket with the director shouting, 'Faster, faster!' That was a tough afternoon."

"Even so, I love all the action stuff. We did a scene where a pot plant had to come crashing down, just missing my head. It was a real clay pot and the more times we did it, the closer we got until it was smashing at my feet. That was great fun, trying to make it as on the edge as we could. The main thing I had to remember was to turn my head away to avoid the bits of the smashed pot flying into my eyes."

MAVERICK
Thirty-three-year old Tate is the maverick of the Squad. His nickname "Bingo" stands for "Bollocks, I'm not going out", a reference to his dislike of working in wet weather. Married and divorced twice, he is a notorious womanizer and night clubber. He hates most villains with a passion unless they are offering information. He has cultivated a wealth of informants and underworld contacts, most of whom make quite a bit of money tipping the wink to the Squad via him. Tate is not above taking a percentage of this, since his two ex-wives have stripped him bare and he needs the extras for "life's little perks". In truth, he knows they let him off lightly because throughout his marriages, he slept with anything in a skirt. Monogamy has never been on Tate's agenda, famous for being able to sleep anytime, anywhere, anyhow, he often has to be hauled out of bed to attend morning briefings, Tate is forever in debt and is constantly engaged in schemes to "raise a bit on the side". And there's nothing Tate enjoys more than a bit on the side.

"He's not averse to bending the rules," confesses Brendan, "but he invariably gets results. There's no doubt he fancies himself but he's a good copper. His specialty is undercover work he's familiar with the way the criminal mind works. If things had turned out differently, he could have ended up on the wrong side of the law. It's fair to say that joining the police saved his life, or he'd have been destined for criminality.

Like the rest of the cast, Brendan welcomed the rare opportunity to meet his real-life counterparts. "I took to the Squad guys there's great camaraderie and a terrific gallows humour. They're addicted to the job. Sure there's a lot of waiting around but when things do go off, there's a huge amount of adrenaline flowing. And there's this intense rivalry with the rest of the Met, who hate the 'flash Harrys', of the Flying Squad and call them 'fat men with guns'.

FOOTBALL CRAZY
The son of a Scottish mother and Irish father, Brendan was raised in Corby, Northamptonshire, but his first love was not acting but football hardly surprising since be is the great nephew of the legendary Sir Matt Busby, former manager of Manchester United.

"Because of who I was, I had a false sense that everybody loved me as a kid. Sir Matt used to take me to Old Trafford to watch the match and I would always go round to his house first for a drink. It was a real treat. Being a 12-year-old in the players lounge was dazzling. And I remember him coming down to Corby to open my father's butcher shop and also to open the town sports centre. He encouraged me to play, but I was never much good at it. I was in the school football team but I was always overshadowed by better players. I was really in awe of him and I spent the first 15 years of my life just wanting to be George Best so that I could reflect that greatness. When I reached 15, I found other interests..."

Brendan was hit hard by Sir Matt's death in January 1994. "I was in America when he died and the shock didn't hit me until saw the newspapers a day later. He was on the front of all of them. There were pictures of children crying outside Old Trafford and I was amazed to see what an impact he'd had on these kids. Sadly, I couldn't get to the funeral but I was incredibly moved by the turnout. I get a lump in my throat even now. I still miss him. He was a gracious and humble man who emanated such charisma. He could be hard and uncompromising but he was always a gentleman. Hugh McIlvanney once wrote that the players never feared Busby's wrath, only his disapproval. That says it all."

There was no thought of Brendan becoming an actor at says school and when be left he worked for a year as a butcher. "I'd always worked in my father's shop so I had some skills when I took the job. I trained as a trimmer which meant I had to get rid of the gristle and fat and make it into presentable meat. I didn't like the job. Cows would come in at one end and go out in boxes at the other. Now I'm a vegetarian."

"When my father died, I became disillusioned and needed something in my life. Although I'd never acted at school, I had been impressed by going to see Richard III on stage while I was doing my '0' Levels. I got turned on by the thought of acting and heard about this aunt in Dublin who ran a theatre there. I rang her up and finished up at drama school."

Since then, Brendan has worked extensively in the theatre as well as on television in such programmes as Dangerfield (where his character was accused of domestic rape) and Catherine Cookson's The Glass Virgin. "I usually play villains or romantic heroes, this is my first cop." Brendan still has fond memories of his stage debut. "I toured Ireland as a stage manager with a company called Trapdoor and did a number of bit parts. The first was as a waiter in a PG. Wodehouse play where I had to walk on carrying a tray with a glass of port on it. I was so nervous I nearly spilt it. I became a comedy shaking waiter, I think the audience thought it was part of the play! I also had to make pig noises offstage, and now in Thief Takers, I'm playing one! The whole thing's come full circle..."