Okay, tell us about where you were born and where you grew up.
I was born in Trinidad.
That's a small island in the western east.
I spent the majority of my life in England.
Everything I have accumulated, everything I have done, what progress I have made in
life, I have made it in England.
So I owe England a hell of a lot.
It made life, in other words, it made me grow up very quickly.
It was very interesting to be here in a sense that I made some very great friends, people
who I never thought I would meet and became quite friendly with them.
How old were you when you came over to England?
I was only 20.
And now I'm a little old fellow.
Was that as an actor you came over?
Believe it or not, my life story is very, very interesting.
When I came here, I couldn't get a job.
And a friend of mine got me a job working on British Railway.
And I could always remember this.
They had a foreman there.
His name was Bill Crusty.
And one day he came to me and he was a Scottish lad.
He came over to me, he said, laddie, come with me.
So I walked over to him and he said to me, he says, I have got a very nice little job
for you to do.
He said, go over to the bunker over there and you'll find some coal on the floor.
Shovel up the coal into the barrel.
When you finish, make yourself scarce for the balance of the day.
So I thought to myself, surely this foreman must have liked me, you know, fantastic.
I could live with that.
So I go over there with my shovel and my little wheelbarrow to shovel up the coal.
When I went over there, I never thought London had so much coal in my life.
It took me two weeks to move the damn thing and he told me to get rid of it.
I said, I could not believe it.
I was shoveling forever.
And then after that I thought to myself, no, there must be a better way of living.
No, no, no, no.
I'm not going to have none of this.
So I started then training to do wrestling and I became a professional wrestler.
And I traveled quite a lot.
I went to India.
I went to the West Indies.
I went to Mauritius, the Seychelles.
You know, I traveled all over the world wrestling, which was very nice because you get a free
flight wherever you're going, you eat the best food, you meet the nicest ladies you
can find, all for free.
I said, well, that's for me.
I'm going to love this job.
So I went along and I did this for a while.
And I thought to myself, surely again there must be something better than this, you know.
So I started doing stunt work and I became a stuntman.
I'm falling all over the place and I'm falling here and I'm falling there.
I'm thinking, shit, there's got to be something better than this.
I've got grief.
I'm falling everywhere.
This is not too good for me at all, you know.
So I thought to myself, yeah, right.
So I started getting parts in movies.
And the first part I could always remember was in a movie with Bob Hope.
They called me Boana, very old movie.
And I got a part in that.
And from that I started meeting the right people.
And straight from that I went into acting.
And I did some very good jobs.
I met some very influential people who helped me a lot.
If it wasn't for them, I would never get anywhere, you know, which was quite interesting really,
you know.
And from there I started doing bits and pieces everywhere.
And then I became, I thought to myself, I must add something else to what I'm doing.
Then I became, what do you call it, a bodyguard.
And I started bodyguarding pop groups and singers.
And can I name the names?
Well, I started, I did Terrence Trent Darby, Shadi, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson.
I did Janet Jackson as well.
I did quite a few, quite a lot of work with film actors, I mean with singers.
Then after that I thought to myself, that's enough traveling.
The wife started complaining I'm away too long.
So I said to myself, well, I think I think more of the wife than the traveling.
So I decided to concentrate more on the acting and came back into the acting business again,
which was quite good.
And I haven't looked back since.
You've made some quite significant movies.
Have you got any particular favorites that you've worked on?
One of them I did was The Goose in the Noonday Sun.
Two.
That was with Peter Sellers.
And I was supposed to do a stunt on this.
And they asked me, can you swim?
And I said yes, but I couldn't swim.
And there was a guy, I've got his name now, he had a part to play.
And he said to them that he could swim as well.
And when we got to Cyprus, he couldn't swim.
So they brought me over and they blackened me up, blackened me up and all this sort of
thing.
And I'm going to, because I had a part in the movie as well, so I'd done that part.
Then they said to me, oh, you have to stand in for this guy.
So I'm thinking, standing for this guy, what am I supposed to do?
They said, well, you have to walk the plank and fall in the sea.
I'm thinking, but this guy came over here to do this.
They said, but he can't swim.
And I'm thinking, Jesus Christ, I can't swim either.
So in other words, I'm in right doodoos now.
So I walked out on this plank and I'm standing on this plank.
But I looked out to the sea and I can't see land.
All I'm seeing is sea.
And I'm thinking to myself, I jump in this down here, that's all I'm going to see.
See?
And I stood there and I sweated.
I've never sweated so much in my life.
The sweat was just pouring over me.
And this guy decided to shoot.
Action!
So this fellow came out on this plank.
He did his whatever, walked off.
I had no to come and take his place.
So I come off to take the place.
But the stuntman at that time was a guy they called Jerry Crampton.
So Jerry Crampton jumped off into the sea.
But the current was so strong, as he hit the water, he went about half a mile down the
road.
And I'm thinking, Jerry's a good swimmer.
I can't swim.
He ended up half a mile down the road.
Where am I going to end up if I jump in there?
So I started to panic.
And fortunately for me, they decided the weather was bad.
The light went.
Oh, we do the shot tomorrow.
I said, thank God for that.
I got back to the hotel, booked me ticket.
I was back in England.
I was gone.
So, but fortunately for me, I knew the producer very well.
And Peter Sellers decided to take over the directing of the movie.
And he called for a strike and all this sort of thing down there.
So they were losing money.
So when I came back, the producer rang me.
And he said to me, what the hell is going on down in Cyprus?
And he's telling me what is happening.
So I said to them, I've heard the director's name now.
Oh, dear, I've heard his name now.
And I told him what I said.
When I left there, Peter Sellers was doing the directing.
He said, Peter Sellers is not the director.
He's the director.
I said, well, that's what happened.
So I got away with it.
And you know that movie, Ghost in the Noonday Sun, was never released.
And what they did was they cut it up and they tried to make it into a television program.
And it didn't turn out all that good.
It didn't turn out all that good.
Because I was back home on holidays.
And I went to a video shop.
And there it was.
So I hired it.
And I looked at it.
And it was no good.
It was terrible.
And that was one I did.
And there was another one I did that was extremely funny, really, really funny.
I have to chug my memory on that one.
Because it was on, oh, yes, it was on Doctor Who itself.
I was in this same mansion.
And I was supposed to be hit by Jamie, fall over a balustrade onto a table.
And the table was supposed to crash underneath me and I'll fall on the ground.
OK.
So they saw the legs of the table halfway through, this side and that side.
So when I fall on it, it will crumple.
So I got up there, hit me, went over the balustrade, fall on the table.
So you know when you're expecting something to happen, you go, the table is still standing
there.
And I fell off the table onto the floor.
I'm going, OK, who did not saw the table leg?
This is what we saw it.
I said, you did?
I said, OK, then.
Went up again.
The same thing happened.
So they decided to show it a little bit more.
And I went up there, going to fall over the top again.
This is a fall over the top before I hit the table.
It collapsed.
It was so funny.
Another time we did Sherlock Holmes.
And I was supposed to be a killer in it, a Spanish killer.
And I was sent to murder this guy.
And I murdered him, and I'm running away from now, from Sherlock Holmes.
So there's a big wall, and I have to climb up this ladder to get on top of the wall.
And then I would take the ladder and hit it on the side of the wall and break the ladder
in half and then throw the pieces down so he can't come up behind me.
So they put the ladder up against the wall, and I come running over, climb up the ladder,
pick up the ladder, hit it on the side of the wall with all the strength I could find.
Nobody saw the ladder.
The ladder was solid.
So could you imagine when you hit that, they do it right up my head, down to my toes, and
I'm going, oh, God!
So the director said, what happened?
I said, the break, if somebody were to saw the ladder, so he comes over, and nobody saw
the ladder.
But anyhow, they saw the ladder.
And this was done on the moors in Yorkshire.
It was freezing cold.
It was November.
I want to tell you, it was freezing cold.
And the best part of it was this.
When I broke the ladder, I have to run, because by this time, he's trying to find a way now
to get up to get to me, and I'm running.
I could always remember this.
There was a bit of dog shit on the ground, and the dog shit was frozen solid.
And my toes hit it, and I tripped, fell flat on my face, sprawled all the way down.
And everybody started laughing.
I said, I don't think it's funny.
Imagine falling over, dog shit, look at me, I'm all flat.
And the dog shit hadn't moved.
It still gets stiff as anything.
God!
That was something else.
But those are my funny times.
I didn't move.
It's very, very funny.
Very, very funny.
I remember the time he was doing a, how do you call it, a Conor Doyle mystery playhouse,
and I played the part of the mummy.
And we were filming in Oxford University.
And I was supposed to be dead in this coffin, wrapped up with all the bandages and all that
sort of thing.
But the make-up on my face and all the bandages, because they had to make my face out of rubber
to fit, like it's rotten.
And over my eye, they had a netting, a piece of net, and they put wombs over the net.
So it looked like there were wombs coming out from my eyes.
And that used to take about three hours to put on.
So anyhow, we filmed that morning, and we had to break for lunch.
So they said to me, Sonny, unfortunately, we can't take the make-up off, because it
was just three hours again behind.
So I'm saying, OK.
So we left everybody.
We went by bus to a pub where we had for dinner and all that sort of thing.
And so I sat in there and I said, well, everybody go in, and I'm going to make a grand entrance,
with all this rotten stuff hanging off of me, and bandage hanging here, all this sort
of thing.
And I can always remember, this woman had this tenants' glass, full with beer.
And I came through that door when everybody had gone in.
And when I pushed open the door, it banged on the side of the bar.
And I walked in like this, dragging a leg.
And this woman went like this.
You want to hear these people scream, because they didn't expect anything like this.
And I came in and I started to laugh.
And guess what happened?
The make-up I had underneath there moved, because it was rubber.
It moved.
So my mouth ended up here, and my mouth itself was over here.
So if I had to eat chips, I had to push it in here, and fit it in to come around here.
Oh God!
So when I got back to shoot, they still had to do the whole make-up again.
He was not pleased.
Oh dear.
But so far, that's it.
Talking of make-up, you're also well known for playing Ice Warriors.
What are your memories of Ice Warrior make-up and costumes?
Well put it this way, the make-up wasn't all that bad.
Because what they did was, they put a rubber mouthpiece on, green with scales on it.
But the costume, Jesus!
The man who invented that costume needs shooting, because it was wicked.
Because you had to put this rubber arm on, and you had to strap it across the back.
So you strap this arm on to this rubber, so it held the arms on.
Then the legs, the legs come straight up again, like rubber.
Big feet.
When I tell you big feet, you are mean big feet.
And when you walk, you use to flap, flap, that sort of thing.
And they used to put these rubber things on.
Rubber, well it's like, well, you like to call it rubber pants.
You use to go right away, and you strap it around your back.
Then they got this fiberglass front, and fiberglass back piece.
And this had to be bolted on you.
So they used to bolt here, bolt to the top, bolt between your legs, so that held it in
place.
And the first time I put it on, I didn't feel too bad.
But when you film in for about four, five hours in it, it becomes rather, rather uncomfortable.
And I started to sweat.
And the sweat was pouring down from here, right down.
My body was sweating.
The legs.
And at one time, when I first felt it, I walked and I heard something go, phew, phew.
And I thought, what the hell is that?
And then I went like this, I, phew, phew.
So then I realized, my feet is filling up with water.
So I call makeup, I says, you got to get the legs off.
They said, why?
I said, there's something in there.
They said, there's nothing there when you put it on.
I said, I'm telling you, there's something in there with my feet.
Because every time I walk, there's something about in there somewhere.
So no, they didn't like that either, because they had to take the back off, they had to
take the front off.
Then they had to strap the leg and take it off.
And I'm not kidding you, in one day, they were full of bucket.
And that's only me sweating away there.
And it went on like this all the time.
And then when it came to part, where they had to kill me off, I was very pleased about
it, you know, because I'm going to get out of this damn thing.
And I stood there, so the stunt coordinator came over to me, he said, how are you going
to fall?
I said, there's only one way I can fall.
If I fall in the back, the back is going to hit the ground first.
If I fall in the front, the front is going to hit the ground first.
I'd rather fall where I'm seen, I'm going to fall.
I don't want to fall back and I don't know what's going to happen down there.
So I'm looking forward and I fell down, not thinking.
The stomach was bigger than the back.
So the stomach was like this.
So when I fall forward, I'm going to land on that stomach.
And I went straight down on the stomach.
And as I hit the stomach, it went up in there.
And I went, oh shit.
That's when I called John Pottrick, he came over.
You all right, sonny?
Yes, in a minute.
Oh, was I in agony.
And I had bruises right up my groin here for weeks after that.
Oh, it was wicked.
Wicked.
And every time I met John Pottrick in the road, if he was driving past and he saw me,
he'd pull up, he says, how was the groin then?
It was so funny.
Oh dear.
Yeah.
I had funny times.
To be honest with you, I enjoyed every moment working on the Doctor Who series.
And I was one of the fortunate ones that worked with two of the Doctor Whos, John Pottrick
and Patrick Stroud, and I booted a number of very nice people I worked with.
And I wouldn't say I regretted doing it.
I enjoyed every moment of it.
And as I said before, I met a lot of interesting people, which I like to do.
I like to meet new faces, talk with people, that sort of thing.
It was very nice for me.
I enjoyed it.
To be honest with you, I really enjoyed my work.
I really enjoyed it.
A lot of people don't, but I enjoyed my work.
It was always a laugh.
It was very nice.
Okay, Sunny, thank you very much for your time.
You're welcome, my friend.
You're welcome.