Night on the tiles (From Thisisdorset)

Night on the tiles

7:00pm Monday 16th June 2008 in

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He may have spent years working as a television actor, but Joe McGann reckons that most TV is a load of rubbish these days.

In fact he's so appalled by the quality of what's on the box that he's given his own telly away.

"There really isn't anything much worth watching," says 49-year-old Joe adding that he and his wife Tamzin - they married in 2006 after nearly seven years together- decided to give their own TV to a friend.

"We moved into a new house and after six weeks we still hadn't got round to plugging the thing in. It just seemed sensible to give it to someone who might actually use it. And you know what? I don't miss it at all."

"You tend to rediscover the art of conversation and reading. It's really very nice.

"I still watch DVDs on my computer and If I want to see the football I go round to my brother's house. It's the best of both worlds.

"What I don't do is sit around wasting my life watching reality TV and other rubbish when I could be doing something far more interesting. Television seems to be so dominant in some people's lives. I really hate it when you go round to someone's house and they just leave the telly on in the background. It's rude and it's unnecessary. In fact I think it's a form of pollution."

Joe is the eldest of the famous acting McGanns. His brothers Paul, Stephen and Mark are all familiar faces from stage and screen.

They get on famously and have each enjoyed a variety of successes.

"There's no rivalry. We just do what we do," says Joe.

Joe himself is best remembered as Charlie Burrows the hapless housekeeper in the sit-com The Upper Hand with Diane Weston and Honor Blackman.

He is also known to local TV viewers for his Going Out series in which he visiting attractions and locations across the region for South Today. In recent years he has worked extensively in the theatre and is currently touring as the lead in the musical Fiddler of the Roof which arrives for a week's run at Bournemouth Pavilion this evening. He admits that he was initially less than impressed with the idea of playing Tevye - the role made famous by Chaim Topol more than 35 years ago.

"I really wasn't a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof. I'd never seen it in the theatre and to be honest I thought the film was rather humourless and the subject matter certainly wasn't my idea of a good night's entertainment. I never really understood what all the fuss was about."

However friends, including his father-in-law Geoff Locise who was in the original West End production, urged him to read the script.

"When I discovered that the role was originally written for Danny Kaye and that Zero Mostel had played it on Broadway I decided it was well worth investigating further."

It was a revelation. This musical about anti-semitism in pre-revolutionary Russia actually worked. The show focuses on a Jewish milkman with three rebellious daughters and a domineering wife struggling to uphold his cultural traditions in the face of changing times and attitudes.

It also features a heart-warming soundtrack with perennial favourites like If I Were a Rich Man and Sunrise, Sunset.

"I really loved it," says Joe. "Tevye is great character, a man who has these amazing conversations with God, a man who's surviving in the face of adversity and, though it's a serious story, there's a lot of humour in it."

The show has already received the McGann family seal of approval.

"They've all seen it, apart from Mark who will be coming to Bournemouth this week. He's the last one.

"Paul's seen it about three or four times, my mum's been and Stephen brought his family. I think they all enjoyed it."

• Fiddler on the Roof opens at Bournemouth Pavilion on Tuesday night and runs until Saturday.