Archie is back to baddie after River City trial thriller

Jul 6 2008 By Steve Hendry

RIVER CITY star Gilly Gilchrist can't wait to get this week's courtroom verdict out of the way - so he can get back to being bad.

The actor has spent the last six months playing a bearded drifter suffering from amnesia who couldn't remember he is really evil Archie Buchanan in the soap.

And since his character's memory returned six weeks ago, he has been putting in a double shift as he plays Archie pretending to be Douglas.

But the truth is finally out as he walks free from the dock after being cleared of fraud and Gilly is delighted.

He said: "I won't miss Douglas. It has been a long time coming but Archie is back to normal, showing his true colours and I love playing the villain. There's just so much you can do with it.

"It's been great playing a character playing another character. During the transition period there have been almost theatrical asides to the camera, tipping the audience the wink.

"That's not something you get a chance to do very often and it's been great fun but it's time to put Douglas to bed.

"Archie is too good a character. You only have to introduce him to a plot and you know somewhere down the line it's all going to go pear shaped."

Archie was 'killed' off last year when his womanising and dodgy dealings led to his mum Liz (Eileen McCallum) bashing him over the head to protect herself and his wife Gina (Libby McArthur).

They dumped his bodywith the help of Gina's sister Eileen (Deirdre Davis) and struggled to live with their guilt - until he turned up as Douglas.

Gilly, 47, admits he thought the producers had lost the plot when they first told him about their plan to bring him back from the dead.

He said: "I knew I was coming back in some shape or form. I thought soap being soap, I might be his even more evil twin, his nice twin, or an identicallooking long lost brother.

"When they first broached it with me I thought, 'What?' It sounded like something out of one of those wacky South American soaps. But it's worked out a treat."

Gilly reckons the BBC Scotland soap's fans will be as happy Archie is back, judging from their reactions to him in the street.

He said: "Douglas doesn't get a look in. More and more I get people shouting 'Archie' at me."

Dad-of-one Gilly is in Italy while the soap is on a filming break. While there he will be godfather to the son of best pal, Doomsday and Rome star Ray Stevenson.

He joked: "It's in Milan but it was originally supposed to be in Sicily which would have been cotton wool in the mouth time."

He is back in action at River City in August.

He said: "Archie has genuine grievances. If you look at it from his point of view, his wife and mum battered him over the head with an urn, rolled him up in a duvet and threw him off a cliff.

"I think he may be justified in seeking some form of justice..."

River City is on BBC1, Tuesday, at 8pm.

SUNDAY EMAIL

s.hendry@sundaymail.co.uk