Articles/Interviews

For TV personality Simon Reed, there are pluses and minuses as tha brother of hell-raising superstar Oliver Reed. Life with Oliver is turbulent but never boring. Here the 33-year-old co-presenter of TV's After Noon Plus tells Ian Woodward what it's been like to live in Olly's shadow.

WHEN I was a boy, I didn't see very much of Oliver. There was a feud between my father and him. I couldn't understand what was going on but I remember thinking "Olly's trouble!"

He phoned one day to invite me to have coffee with him in a Wimbledon cafe. He met me outside my school and took me to the place and I thought: "What the hell's all the fuss about? He's not such a villain."

I then discovered something about Oliver that hasn't basically changed - he's very shy. People laugh when you say that a rumbustuous hell-raiser like Oliver Reed is shy - but he is.

Prizes
There are all sorts of ways of covering up shyness, and Oliver does it by boozing and indulging in outrageous front-page-news behaviour.

At home, his hot temper didn't help and he couldn't get on with disciplined school life either.

We changed schools 13 times and in the end, because of the rift with our father, he ran away from home. I looked on bewildered.

He was just 17 but he was a big fellow. And he could easily take care of himself. At various times, he was a boxer, a Soho bouncer and a cab driver.

Then he got into films and at 22 was a Hammer star in The Curse Of The Werewolf. And he and father resolved their differences.

He may not have done well at school, but he's bright. He has a lot of intuitive, original thought.

And in sport he just had to win everything in sight. At one sports he ran off with all the running prizes.

When Oliver came home with all his trophies, my father - who's always been completely uncompetitive would say: "What are you trying to prove?"

My father still thinks Oliver and I, two very ambitious people, have our priorities all wrong. I think he's proud of what we're doing, but his philosophy is to be a happy man - not a rich or famous one.

For some time I handled Oliver's public relations. It was then that discovered how unpredictable he was. There were good days and bad days, but never dull days.

He knows what his public image is and he plays it up to the hilt. But his boozing, hell-raising ways are real.

I mean, you can't fabricate getting thrown in jail in Spain or being chucked out of hotels and discos, you can't fabricate going to Barbados with a 16-year-old schoolgirl

He doesn't do any of these thing for publicity - he's just being Olly.

It was just before - and during - my PR days with Olly that I came most under his influence.

You couldn't help but grow up in Olly's company. Girls were never in short supply. Gags, tomfoolery and practical jokes flew about us. Life was fun but exhausting.

Complex
I'd be lying if I said Oliver's reputation hasn't had a big effect on me. It obviously has - no matter how much I try to convince myself that mustn't try to beat him in something.

I suppose I need recognition of some sort. I suppose there is an inferiority complex lurking somewhere.

I hope this hasn't got anything to do with Oliver. I mean, when I meet him, I am anxious that he realises that I'm doing reasonably well for myself... that I've got an identity of my own. There's a strong desire to say to him, "Look what I've done!"

As an adolescent, I didn't have very much self-confidence. So I enjoyed other people's interest in me because of my famous brother.

But about seven years ago, I began to see how ridiculous my life had become.

Confident
I was looking after Oliver's publicity at that time, and I realised I had to break away, do something for myself.

I never wanted to become an actor like Oliver because if I had succeeded, people would have said, "Oh. he's only got there because he sat on his brother's back." And if I had failed they would have said, "That's just because he's a pale imitation of Oliver." I would have lost either way.

I desperately needed to be looked on as a personality in my own right.

I remember Oliver asking me what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a TV chat show host.

Oliver asked: "How much does Michael Parkinson earn?" I said: "About �25,000 a year."

And Oliver just laughed. "�25,000? Puhh! I make that in two weeks."

He felt I should go into some line that pays real money. Chat-show hosts are now of course the stars - and Parkinson will make a million.

I'm much more confident now, so if I'm offered a terrific role - I wouldn't mind doing a bit of acting now - I wouldn't think twice.

Who knows... people may even one day refer to Oliver as the elder brother of Simon Reed! Oliver? Well, he's always lived dangerously. It worries me. I've always said he'd kill himself one day...