Steve Speirs talks about playing Tel in Rovers, and winning meat raffles...

What would you say Rovers is all about for you?

Well I need money for Christmas...

No, I think it's about the little things that happen in between our lives. I suppose it's about relationships and idiosyncrasies - if you like the small and weird things about human nature, then this is a show for you. There are a lot of independent people in it that are all drawn together by a common cause - they all support a football team which is pretty ropey, to say the least, but it's the love of that team that every Saturday takes them to this club. And in a way they're all outsiders that need each other and the club. And if that makes it sound a bit serious, that's wrong because it's incredibly funny.

I think it's fantastic Sky is doing this as this is the sort of commissionable comedy that, for me, is good, clever comedy. You don't have to love football to love this but you do have to like comedy to love this.

The fact that you have Craig and Sue together for the first time since The Royle Family, and then you have these very current comedians from the stand-up world, and then you've got seasoned comedy actors like myself thrown into that mix. It was a really fantastic set to be on. It was never the sort of set where you thought, 'oh I'll just pop in and see what happens today'. You looked around you and went, 'I'd better try to be on top of my game today. There are a lot of people here who know what they're doing.'

Was it the other cast members that drew you to the show?

The script itself made it a no brainer. When I was asked to do a read a year or so ago I just thought it was a terrific script. I thought that David and Joe were very clever, and the thought of working with Craig and Sue was just really appetising.

These were people who, in terms of Craig, who's been instrumental in certainly two of the most iconic British comedies of the last 20 years in terms of The Royle Family and Early Doors, and then you've got Sue who is such a master of her craft - I just think everything she touches she adds class to. You just know you want to be in that environment.

It was an incredibly long day, because of the fact that everybody is in every scene, even if you're just a shoulder or arse passing. Normally if you stick me for 12 hours a day for six days a week with anybody I'm going to rock the wall. But it was the sort of cast that you really look forward to going to work with the next day. Everybody was a joy to work with.

You play Tel, one of the Rovers' diehard fans. How would you describe the character?

He's Pete's best friend. He's a man who's recently divorced, but very loyal to Pete and the club.

I would say that he's deep, but I think he's just thick. The reality is I don't think there's a lot going on there. You know he'd be on your side, but I doubt you'd let him take the dog for a walk.

Tel's quite a modern guy, in a club that in some ways is stuck in a bygone era...

Yeah, well there is his sexuality that is revealed in the first episode. What I like about that is that I don't think he thinks he's being modern, with it, or right on, or politically correct in the way he says things. I just think he's a very honest, innocent man, who just sees his relationship as very normal and very healthy.

He doesn't have any problems with that at all. He just thinks, 'I had a wife, now I've got a boyfriend'. The fact that he says it so matter of factly, that of course raises eyebrows with the archaic world of some of the other characters, but that adds to the comic clout of it.

One of the great things about the community of the series is they barely register Tel as being any different since coming out. Would you say the community is the appeal of the club rather than the actual football?

Absolutely. They go to the club for each other as much as the football. Although they sit in the same places and they don't mix within the geography of the room, they're really close and I should imagine that if anybody from the outside had a go at them they'd probably stick together like street cats. That's part of the charm really. Tel's sexuality isn't an issue to him and it's not an issue for them.

What's really nice about it is that's becoming more and more the norm, and rightly so, right across Britain in working men's clubs and pubs now. Whereas not so long ago, ten years ago say, you'd still have a football team that would call somebody names, whereas now you get kids in school who are 16 who are able to be open and comfortable with themselves. It's a good sign of what's happening in the country and how embracing we are and I think that's reflected in Rovers.

Do you follow football?

I haven't got a clue! I didn't even know that Wales played football until somebody told me while I was up there. I don't watch football at all, but I'm a massive rugby follower, the whole thing of supporting your team and knowing what's happening to them, and the fact that you stick with them through thick and thin is universal to both sports. I understand the whole thing of what makes a supporter of a team tick.

So you can understand that kind of unconditional love for a pretty rubbish team?

Oh Absolutely. It's a blind love. And the thing is, you can slag them off, but God help anyone else who does.

Tel is the lucky winner of the meat raffle in the first episode. It looked minging. Have you ever won anything like that in real life?

It was minging, wasn't it. Do you know what? I've never, ever won a raffle, I've never won a game of Bingo, I've never won anything in my life. So I'd personally have taken that meat as a result. It's all relative, that was a good prize as far as I was concerned.

It looked like it might have been hanging around the set for a little while...

I tell you what, we were on that set for 12 hours a day and it was very, very hot. The meat would go from pink to a dull brown by mid-afternoon, so because that episode took a week to shoot we went through quite a lot of those platters of meat, and it was given a lot of attention. I would go as far to say that the meat was treated a lot better on that set than any of the actors! I wouldn't mind being refreshed at three in the afternoon, but I was told to get on with it.