Articles/Interviews

He's had Soho bottle fights and still has the scars to show for it... He's had his head shaved completely bald and danced naked on the bar of his local... He's had more vodka-drinking contests than you've had hot dinners - and never lost one (not even a 14-hour marathon with Lee Marvin).

And he's also had enough.

Oliver Reed, the last of the hell-raisers, says he wants to call it a day. After a decade in the booze-sodden, liver-pickling, knuckle-bruising, scandal-making tradition of such characters as Robert Mitchum and Richard Harris, actor Olly wants to go into graceful retirement.

He was 40 a few months ago. "Everyone slows down a bit at 40," he says. "I'm tired of living up to the image I've tried to perpetuate for so long"

"OK, I still enjoy getting drunk and having punchups now and then - but not as much as before. Most of the time I had to behave like a Neanderthal Man or I wouldn't have been Oliver Reed, right?"

Despite all his riches and superstar status, he admits he is not happy.

"Happy? No, I'm not happy," he sighs. "Who can be, the way the world is? Somebody once said 'There's no such thing as happiness - only perfect moments'. That's so damn true..."

He leaves you in no doubt as to when and where his perfect moments take place: at his stately home, Broome Hall, in Dorking, Surrey. He bought the 50-roomed mansion, set in 50 acres, seven years ago and has since spent more than �150,000 renovating it. It's his pride and joy, but also the seed of much discontent. For tax reasons, he can only spend part of the year there. The rest of the time he lives in a hotel in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands with Jackie Daryl, his long-suffering, live-in girlfriend for the past 12 years, and their 10-yearold daughter, Sarah.

"Breaks my bloody heart," he says. "I can't wait until I can live at Broome Hall permanently. There I can be me - the real me. I'm actually quite sensitive. My real passion is for my land, flowers and horses."

He smiles broadly, confidently. He obviously knows just what he wants for the future.

"I'm bored with acting but I've got to keep going at the moment to be able to afford to renovate and run Broome Hall. Eventually I'll happily give up the acting, and hell-raising completely to involve myself in the film production company I have started."

"With the money I get from that, I'll be able to concentrate on my major ambitions: to breed heavy hunter horses and win at the Horse of the Year Show and to buy a pub. I'll be a film-making, horse-breeding pub-owning family man!"