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Steve Hodson - Present Day.(2004)

Photo curtesy of Oliver Johnson (via Sabrina).

Go here, to celebrate Steve's 60th Birthday, with a special treat for fans.

Steve Hodson
played the main character of Steve Ross, a former stable boy employed by the local Squire but dismissed when implicated as a Nightrider. The Colonel employs him to help at Follyfoot despite rumours of a reform school upbringing and prison term for beating up a man who was whipping a horse. Steve was abandoned by his mother put into an orphanage after his father died when Steve was only four years old. He does find his mother again only to have to give her up when she rejects him. He considers his life at Follyfoot as the closest to having a home that he's ever had.
The character of Steve appeared to be 18 or 19 years of age in the series but the actor was actually 25, born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on November 5th, 1947. Steve Hodson was engaged during the series and later married(wife unknown) and had two daughters. (thank you Deborah, former SH FanClub Member for the additional information.)
Since the Follyfoot tv series Steve Hodson has made a sucessful career as a voice actor for audio books and radio plays on BBC 4, right up to present day.
He has also often worked in collaboration with Christian Rodska on several audio books.
His present whereabout are not known but it is assumed that he currently lives in the UK.

click on the link to read a radio interview with Steve.

If it wasn't for boredom, Steve Hodson would never have become a start, and consequently would never have made the screens as Steve in Yorkshire Television's "Follyfoot"!

"The only reason I ever got into acting," Steve told us, "was because I was bored. So much so one night that a friend said, 'Why don't we go along to the local amateur theatre group? It'll be a lark and it'll give us something to do!' So we both went along and I immediately fell in love with acting! It sounds like a fairy tale but that's exactly what happened. I knew from then onwards that acting had to be my career, so I packed in my job as a civil servant in Bradford, and came down to London to take up a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama."

It was while at the College that Steve stayed with a family in Wimbledon who just happened to have a horse.

"College was a bit of a skive really," Steve went on, "and I found myself with lots of spare time. So I took up horse riding and amazed everyone – including myself – by soon being able to ride fairly well!"

Naturally, that coupled with his acting ability, gave him a head start in the competition for the part in Follyfoot, which he eventually secured.

"The programme, having had such a long run, had really become part of my life," said Steve, "and obviously it was the same with everyone else involved. Really we all had a lovely time and naturally we were sad to see it end, but of course you have to keep moving."

And this Steve's doing – quite literally these days.

"Well I must admit to a liking for fast cars," Steve confessed, "but that's really about my only 'flash' pursuit. Apart from that, I'm really happiest in peace and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of things."

Which could also explain Steve's two main hobbies – reading and listening to quiet records.

"I like reading poetry especially," Steve went on. "Whenever I have some free time and I'm feeling a bit fed up, there's nothing I like more than to get up into the Yorkshire Moors, where it's so calm and peaceful, and read some of my favourite poems. There's nothing like getting away from everything."

Getting back to 'Follyfoot', we asked Steve just what he saw himself doing now the series has finished for good.

"Well as far as my career's concerned," Steve pondered, "I'd like to get to the stage in acting where I could pick what parts I wanted to play and get on with those – but that's quite far off, I suppose.

"Apart from my career, though, I only have one big ambition – and that's to buy a cottage in the moors somewhere.

"Actually, you know, I'm off to a good start, since I'm being allowed to keep Alex, my horse in the series. So it looks like 'Follyfoot' has helped my future in more than one way, doesn't it?"

And it's a future which we're sure will be a successful one – well deserved too.

Transcribed by Sabrina (2004)

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