Home > Interviews > 13 Questions: Actor Tim Gebbels
13 Questions: Actor Tim Gebbels
30th November 2009
41 year old blind actor, Tim Gebbels, splits his time between London, where most of his work tends to pop up, and Oxfordshire, where he and his partner Hala have a home. Tim has had roles on both stage and screen, including appearances in play “The Blind” featuring an all blind cast and in ITV’s The Bill and William and Mary.
At the moment, Tim can be seen in Channel 4 drama Cast Offs, a spoof reality TV show which places six disabled people on a remote island for six months. Each character gets a featured episode, where their back story is revealed. Tim plays Tom, an eccentric actor with a dry wit and a tendency to keep himself apart from the group. His episode is currently available to watch online. Tim was relaxing at home when we called to ask him our 13 very nosey Questions.
At the moment, Tim can be seen in Channel 4 drama Cast Offs, a spoof reality TV show which places six disabled people on a remote island for six months. Each character gets a featured episode, where their back story is revealed. Tim plays Tom, an eccentric actor with a dry wit and a tendency to keep himself apart from the group. His episode is currently available to watch online. Tim was relaxing at home when we called to ask him our 13 very nosey Questions.
Uppermost in my mind today is ...
Aidan, my old retired guide dog. He is 13 and a half and went in to have teeth out yesterday and the vet was worried about age related kidney failure. He is still alive, and has come back exactly the same, as far as we can tell.
People think I am ...
I don’t know, but I am one of those people who is quite insecure and I do wonder what people think. In different moods I suspect different things. The thing is not to worry about it too much. You’re a nicer person if you are not worried about being nice.
Not a lot of people know that I ...
Killed a chicken when I was 15, my friend Alan thought it would be a good experience for me to ring it’s neck. It was interesting, but I plucked it afterwards and that was just boring. Don’t worry, it had had a wonderful life up to that point.
The best piece of advice I would pass on is ...
Whatever you enjoy, do it. Football, Latin, dress-making, it doesn’t matter how trivial it is. If you have a hobby, something which makes you happy, it will serve you all your life. When you are happy, you communicate better with other people. My hobbies are Doctor Who and cricket.
I want to ban ...
A-boards: the wooden triangles in front of shop fronts used for advertising. Why do they need to have them obstructing the footpath? Outrageous. At least you can get your own back on cars parked on the pavement by accidentally snapping the wing mirror.
I excel at ...
Finding things my sighted partner has lost. She panics and doesn’t take time to look systematically. Still, we blind people can’t 'glance search'. If we are looking for a book on a bed, we have to feel all two square metres of bed, while a sighted person can just glance and find it.
My ideal dinner guest would be ...
General Sir Mike Jackson and Lt Colonel Derek Wilford. They were the top people on the ground on Bloody Sunday. No comebacks, no microphones, I’d ask them off the record, what went wrong? The troubles in Northern Ireland are interesting because they are sort of history but we can just about remember them as well. They were also very close to home.
I couldn't live without ...
My guide dog. I am on my second, and having one has given me a better quality of life. There isn’t a better way of getting around London. Cane travel is slow, stressful and painful. And I couldn’t live without Doctor Who DVDs. They are comfort viewing, like reliving a bit of your childhood. In 1973, when I was 5 years old, I lost my sight, my parents split up and I went to boarding school. I retreated into an alternative Doctor Who reality. My parents and teachers were quite worried but I think it was a healthy response and a way of cocooning myself.
My first job was ...
At the same place I killed the chicken. I punched holes in cardboard templates for the crates which ultimately were to hold robot components. Quite a dull job but I got paid for it. It made me feel sort of normal, because when you are blind, you don’t usually get holiday work.
When I come home in the evenings I ...
Check my email. There might be some life changing job or something waiting. And maybe have a drink, usually a bottle of crisp white wine.
If I ruled the world I ...
Make it compulsory to have disabled actors playing disabled roles. Why is this even up for debate? We wouldn’t be discussing whether it is OK to black up for a part and quite rightly too.
Working on Cast Offs was
A lot of fun, a lot of hard work and a good learning experience. And it was the biggest telly I’ve ever done.
In the future I ...
Would like to do more classical stuff like Shakespeare. But maybe one of the reasons I’ve survived as an actor is because I’m not worried about the future. Luckily, so far I haven’t had to because the phone has always rung.
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