PICK NICK

WHEN friends told Nick Weir to break a leg before he began his big chance as a presenter on national television, they only meant to wish him good luck.

But just days into the filming of the new series of Friday night primetime show Catchphrase, Nick really did break his leg - in three places.

A true professional, he decided the show must go on and continued filming the rest of the programmes on crutches, with his leg in his plaster.

Nick, 32, who lives on the Brighton and Hove border, said: "I was running down the stairs for the start of the show when I fell.

"Because I'd been having a laugh with the audience, a lot of them thought it was a joke, but I was in real pain."

Nick was quickly bandaged up and carried on filming.

He said: "This was so important to me. It's amazing what the brain can do when the adrenaline is pumping.

"We filmed another two shows that afternoon when I was jumping around before I went to hospital and discovered it was broken.

"This was my big opportunity and all the worries I'd had faded away in comparison to possibly not being able to do it.

Character

"Filming was cancelled for two days while it was decided what to do, then the producer said if I wanted to, we'd carry on, which we did."

A 6ft 6ins, larger-than-life character, Nick took his A-levels at Steyning Grammar School.

His parents were both entertainers and his father featured in the original production of West End musical My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.

Nick said: "My first claim to fame is that Julie Andrews changed my nappies!

"I was never interested in going into showbiz because I'd grown up with it all around me.

"I was more interested in science and studied marine biology in Miami.

"I chose America because I wanted to get out of England and see somewhere different and Miami had a good university for that subject."

But it was in America that Nick got his first taste of working in the entertainment world and he soon found himself lured in.

He said: "The cruise ships were based where I was studying and I used to earn some extra cash by taking on anything that needed doing.

"I was always being criticised for entertaining the class at university. One time I had to do an hour presentation - I did five minutes of the subject and 55 minutes of stand-up.

"When I left university with loads of debt, it started to dawn on me that perhaps that was the way to make a living."

Nick worked in the entertainment industry on cruise ships for 11 years, mainly in the USA and the Caribbean.

He said: "I was there at a time when the industry just exploded. I went from being on stage in front of 200 people, to performing in front

of 2,000. I did a bit of whatever needed doing from singing to producing the shows.

"But in the end there was nowhere else for me to go and it became a bit of a fantasy world. It's a great way to live but you can't have a meaningful relationship or a family.

"I thought about what else I could do, and because I had a technical background as well as the entertainment side, TV became my dream."

Video

An agent spotted Nick's work on the ships and, before he knew it, he was taken on and was asked to make a video of himself.

Nick said: "My agent had the right connections and all of a sudden I was doing regional television for Granada.

"It was great trial-and-error stuff and I did a lot of pilots which didn't even get broadcast. I didn't think it would amount to anything.

"Last summer I was just starting to think it was time to go back on the cruise ships and I was literally two minutes away from signing a contract to go back when I thought 'I've got to give this thing another chance'.

"Thirty minutes after I had turned it down, the call came through to check my availability for a new show - it turned out to be Catchphrase."

Now Nick's face is seen by millions as the host of the famous gameshow where contestants have to guess expressions and sayings being depicted by a computer on a screen.

He said: "Because I've been away a lot, I haven't watched a lot of television but Catchphrase was the sort of show that I'd stay with if I flicked through and it was on.

"I haven't been recognised yet which is great. I don't want to be treated differently.

"But I do harbour desires of being like someone like Bruce Forsyth or Bob Monkhouse and really being part of the furniture, a household name."

Nick, who also presents Grudge Match, loves living in Brighton. He said: "I've always had mates here and I feel like my roots are here.

"Brighton's always been a great place to be, because apart from being where it's all happening, I love to be near to the sea."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.