Life's no drag for Home & Away's Ray Meagher

Home And Away star Ray Meagher is relieved to have avoided a drag queen's role in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. The actor, who has starred as lovable grump Alf Stewart since the start of the Aussie soap, has taken a break from Summer Bay to play Aussie mechanic Bob in the super camp musical in London's West End. He said: "Ben Richards (who plays Tick) said he absolutely hates dressing up. He loves doing the show, but he said women deserve a medal for wearing high heels - they hurt your back, they hurt your feet. I take his word for it and am quite happy I don't have to do that." Although Bob and Alf are both Australian, Ray said the two characters are quite different from each other. "Alf is a little bit like Bob on steroids. Bob is a lot calmer, not as aggressive or fly-off-the-handleish as Alf can be. But he's a lovely bloke, with a heart of gold and all of that. Alf's got that too, but in a different casing." Ray, who returns to Home and Away next year, added: "I still enjoy playing Alf, but I'm really enjoying this because it is very different." Priscilla Queen Of The Desert is on at the Palace Theatre in London.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.