Holy smoke!

Published on 11th January 2007 in News

Hollyoaks fans got a real treat last week with the arrival of new character, raunchy stripper Freddie, who is played by none other than local martial arts champion Ben Parr.

19-year-old Ben made his first on-screen appearance in the Channel 4 soap last Friday. The six-foot blue-eyed blond stars as Freddie, a new flatmate for feisty Nancy Hayton. Freddie is a stripper and on the show this week Ben performed his first strip routine dressed as a fireman.

Getting in shape for show

Black belt Ben, a three-times Tae Kwon Do world champion, has been training 20 hours a week in the gym for his Full Monty-style reveal.

"When millions of people are about to see you stripping off on TV you want to be in your best shape," said Ben, who is from Sykehouse and who turns 20 on January 16.

"I didn't know what part I was getting when I signed up - but I couldn't have asked for more exposure. On my first day some of the Hollyoaks girls asked if they could book me for parties. I told them I'm an actor - not a real stripper!"

However, Ben is no stranger to the limelight. His dad is St Elmo's Fire rock star John Parr and he worked with showbiz royalty including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Demi Moore and the rest of the Brat Pack.

Ben did his school work experience on the Bond film set of Die Another Day, played a camp hairdresser in Oscar-nominated short movie Road To Damascus, and fronted the music video for a re-mixed version of his dad's St Elmo's Fire, called New Horizon.

"Fame and celebrity won't change me. I'll still be the same me. I've grown up with it. It's the norm," said Ben, who lives with his dad, mum Sharon, young brother James and grandma Betty.

"I've only been out of education just over a year. To be honest I was expecting it to be a lot longer before I got a break like Hollyoaks. My initial plan was to teach martial arts and do private fitness training."

In a poll on the official Hollyoaks website this week, the character of Freddie received 75 per cent of the votes over Elliot as to who is the audience's favourite new character.