Yorkshire Evening Post Interview
Sam Callis plays Sgt Callum Stone in ITV1's The Bill
Having played a fireman, a soldier, a doctor and now a policeman, you get the feeling Sam Callis likes dressing up.
"Yes, I love a bit of uniform!" he says, laughing. "If I had to choose, I'd say my soldier's outfit from (SAS drama] Ultimate Force was the most fun to wear, and the current police get-up from The Bill is very comfortable.
"The worst would be the fireman's suit I wore when I was in London's Burning. That was like wearing a duvet, but I suppose that's very good at stopping you from being burnt alive, but it got very hot in there when we were filming in the summer."
Sam has been playing Sun Hill's Sgt Callum Stone since last August, and while he admits the character is dark and complex, he relishes the challenge of playing someone so different to himself.
"Callum's a very ambiguous man. You never know what his exact reasons for doing things are, and people can't work out whether he's good or bad. I like that side to him.
"He's driven by his own sense of justice, too. Other officers at the station believe the police are there to administer the law, whereas Stone thinks he's there to administer justice, which is a different thing. He's not a vigilante, but he has a very strong sense of what he believes to be right and wrong.
"He's also very closed-off, emotionally, with a lot of skeletons in the closet. I certainly hope his personality doesn't bear any resemblance to mine! I'm not like that at all really."
Over recent weeks, Bill fans will have seen Sgt Stone and PC Emma Keane (Melanie Gutteridge] get closer and closer, with the headstrong female officer teasing her superior, flirting and, on more than one occasion, look as if she was going to kiss him.
"Yeah, she's quite drawn to him," explains the 34-year-old. "She flirts with Callum to find out more about him, which has a big effect on him. Emma is feisty and Callum falls for her a little bit, in spite of himself.
"She ends up using that against him, though, and you see fragments of his turmoil. He was desperate to open up to someone, but then has it thrown back in his face."
Stone may regret his reticence in the coming weeks, however.
After hearing an explosion in a busy street, PC Keane and fellow officer Sally Armstrong (Ali Bastian] rush to investigate. Stone arrives shortly after and takes charge.
It's a tense situation, so when back at the station Keane and Stone discover a man has been pretending to be a doctor in the local hospital in order to molest injured women, the latter tracks down the guilty party and, rather than arrest him, begins beating him.
PC Keane is shocked by what she sees, so leaves her Sergeant to it to return to the station, alone. On her way she sees smoke coming from a building and after radioing in the fire, she's told there is another bomb planned to go off. She immediately rushes to the scene alone to try to save as many people as possible, but when the bomb goes off, she's trapped inside.
Callum realises where his colleague is and rescues her from the debris. But despite his best efforts, she dies in front of him.
"He obviously feels an amazing amount of guilt after Emma dies, due to the way he behaves and his style of policing," explains Sam. "It really sticks with him that he ended up putting her life in danger because of his behaviour.
"I really enjoyed playing this storyline, actually," he adds. "We've just come to a close on it, and we're moving onto something else, but it was good. It was a lot of fun to be able to concentrate on just that story over four episodes.
"It's a journey within the context of the show, and it's very satisfying when you get to the end. You don't get much time for reflection, you just move onto the next storyline, but I am really looking forward to seeing these episodes on TV."
While he may seem convincing on screen playing a busy Sergeant, in real life, Sam knows he was never cut out to be a policeman.
"I think it would be really, really hard to remain emotionally detached, and you must get involved sometimes. I'd be a terrible policeman!
Having played a fireman, a soldier, a doctor and now a policeman, you get the feeling Sam Callis likes dressing up.
"Yes, I love a bit of uniform!" he says, laughing. "If I had to choose, I'd say my soldier's outfit from (SAS drama] Ultimate Force was the most fun to wear, and the current police get-up from The Bill is very comfortable.
"The worst would be the fireman's suit I wore when I was in London's Burning. That was like wearing a duvet, but I suppose that's very good at stopping you from being burnt alive, but it got very hot in there when we were filming in the summer."
Sam has been playing Sun Hill's Sgt Callum Stone since last August, and while he admits the character is dark and complex, he relishes the challenge of playing someone so different to himself.
"Callum's a very ambiguous man. You never know what his exact reasons for doing things are, and people can't work out whether he's good or bad. I like that side to him.
"He's driven by his own sense of justice, too. Other officers at the station believe the police are there to administer the law, whereas Stone thinks he's there to administer justice, which is a different thing. He's not a vigilante, but he has a very strong sense of what he believes to be right and wrong.
"He's also very closed-off, emotionally, with a lot of skeletons in the closet. I certainly hope his personality doesn't bear any resemblance to mine! I'm not like that at all really."
Over recent weeks, Bill fans will have seen Sgt Stone and PC Emma Keane (Melanie Gutteridge] get closer and closer, with the headstrong female officer teasing her superior, flirting and, on more than one occasion, look as if she was going to kiss him.
"Yeah, she's quite drawn to him," explains the 34-year-old. "She flirts with Callum to find out more about him, which has a big effect on him. Emma is feisty and Callum falls for her a little bit, in spite of himself.
"She ends up using that against him, though, and you see fragments of his turmoil. He was desperate to open up to someone, but then has it thrown back in his face."
Stone may regret his reticence in the coming weeks, however.
After hearing an explosion in a busy street, PC Keane and fellow officer Sally Armstrong (Ali Bastian] rush to investigate. Stone arrives shortly after and takes charge.
It's a tense situation, so when back at the station Keane and Stone discover a man has been pretending to be a doctor in the local hospital in order to molest injured women, the latter tracks down the guilty party and, rather than arrest him, begins beating him.
PC Keane is shocked by what she sees, so leaves her Sergeant to it to return to the station, alone. On her way she sees smoke coming from a building and after radioing in the fire, she's told there is another bomb planned to go off. She immediately rushes to the scene alone to try to save as many people as possible, but when the bomb goes off, she's trapped inside.
Callum realises where his colleague is and rescues her from the debris. But despite his best efforts, she dies in front of him.
"He obviously feels an amazing amount of guilt after Emma dies, due to the way he behaves and his style of policing," explains Sam. "It really sticks with him that he ended up putting her life in danger because of his behaviour.
"I really enjoyed playing this storyline, actually," he adds. "We've just come to a close on it, and we're moving onto something else, but it was good. It was a lot of fun to be able to concentrate on just that story over four episodes.
"It's a journey within the context of the show, and it's very satisfying when you get to the end. You don't get much time for reflection, you just move onto the next storyline, but I am really looking forward to seeing these episodes on TV."
While he may seem convincing on screen playing a busy Sergeant, in real life, Sam knows he was never cut out to be a policeman.
"I think it would be really, really hard to remain emotionally detached, and you must get involved sometimes. I'd be a terrible policeman!