It’s a dog’s life ...

Press, 30 January 1986, Page 19

It’s a dog’s life ...

Tom Mennard, the actor who plays Sam Tindall in Granada’s “Coronation Street,” is quite resigned to being upstaged, and even ignored, by his fourlegged co-star, Dougal. Sam brings his dog to do a spot of rat-catching at Curly and Terry’s yard this evening on One, and Tom knew just the dog for the part — his own extrovert pet. “Dougal is a Lhasa Apso. He was a year old on November 11. He loves cats, dogs and children. In fact, I’m the only one of God’s creatures he is not all that keen on,” says Mennard.

“When I spend the week in Manchester to work in “Coronation Street,” the hotel where I stay always makes him welcome. In fact, they get furious if I don’t bring him. They look after him during the day and he has the run of the place. “He lies at reception and everybody who comes in makes a fuss of him. Anybody else gets a lick or a tail-wag from him but, when I come in, he

ignores me. “He was missing one day. He’d gone to the Lake District with two of the lady guests. And the next day we discovered him under their table, still keeping up his new friendship. “The staff at the hotel also look after his grooming while I’m out working.

They bath him, dry him off with a hairdryer — and they have even bought him a special dog’s comb. “Everybody likes him and he likes everybody, except me. He just tolerates me. “And now he’ll probably act me off the screen as well!”