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Ear plugs
ready? The A-Team returns to ITV this Saturday with a little caper in
which our four soldiers of fortune bravely take on half the US Army.
Actually, it
may not be all that noisy. While the series was being filmed earlier
this year, a Los Angeles sneak-thief ran off with a truck containing all
the units special-effect bombs and ammunition. The Team are still
looking for him...
That wasn't
the only production mishap. George Peppard, who plays CoI. Hannibal
Smith, fell off a lorry during a stunt and needed 20 stitches in his
back. Filming had to be suspended for 10 days. And the Team's token
female, Marla Heasley, who plays Tawnia Baker, was signed up and then
sacked within the space of a few episodes. 'She understands', says
producer John Ashley, 'that the four men are the thrust of the show.'
None of
those men is more thrustful than Mr. T., the mountain of musle and
jewellery who plays B.A. Baracus.
'Who is the
biggest star in the world and who do kids love most?' he asks. 'Say it
ain't me and I'll break every bone in your body.'
He is like a
Hollywood Pied Piper, followed everywhere by children. Luckily he likes
them and has spent most of this past year offering them his home-grown
gospel in schools and at street corners. Simply put, he's for education
and religion, and very much against drink, drugs and delinquency.
'I'm trying
t set an example for the people who have been on welfare, who have come
from broken homes - as I have,' he says. 'You don't have to be snitching
nobody's purse. You don't have to be turning to drugs. I grew up with
all that around me but I didn't get involved because I saw something
higher. It's not where you come from, it's where you're going.
'If you want
to be successful, do what the teachers tell you, ' he booms out to the
kids. 'If they say "read", read. I'm glad you know me from TV,
but I don't want you to watch my show if you haven't done your
homework.'
Now he has
put his message to music, launching out as a singer with a rock song and
video called Be Somebody.
George
Peppard, meanwhile, is hoping you'll see less and less of him this
series. He has decided to spice up the show with some wild disguises. So
watch out for tramps, women, Mexicans and Chinese in the series. Any one
of them might be him.
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