STEVENSON College, sometime around 30 years ago, and Billy McElhaney and his mates are looking for somewhere to spend their lunch break.
Their plans to play football have been scuppered because the ‘big dome’ sports hall is being refurbished. Faced with hanging around bored or spending some time with some “fit looking birds” - no prizes for guessing which one they choose.
Billy didn’t know it at the time, but opting for the latter and joining the college drama club was about to change his life.
“I went for a laugh,” he says with a broad grin. “Someone said, ‘why not join the drama group because there’s some fit looking birds there’ and that was it.
“I’d never done drama in my life before. But I went and I enjoyed it and the guy that ran it seemed to think I had an aptitude for it.”
Having kicked off his acting career by chance, Billy is now better known to fans of Glasgow-based soap drama River City, as lovable rogue Jimmy Mullen.
And he’s about to find himself at the centre of the series most sensitive and dramatic Christmas episodes in its history.
In coming episodes, viewers will see Billy’s character Jimmy and screen wife Scarlett, played by Sally Howitt, wrestle with the emotional trauma of her ovarian cancer - made all the more poignant and dramatic as it coincides head on with the Christmas festivities.
But, stresses Billy, with the gripping scenes and rollercoaster storyline, comes a deep responsibility.
For tackling life-threatening cancer amid the fast-pace, non stop drama of a running soap, requires balance, care and, above all, sensitivity.
“I know it’s a terrible cliché, but it’s about keeping it real,” he nods. “It’s all about getting the right balance between the story and the drama and what is real.
“I think there’s a lot of people out there who perhaps don’t want to face up to cancer, they hope its going to go away, but it’s such a massive thing and you can’t just avoid it.”
Followers of the BBC Scotland soap have already seen Jimmy’s wife Scarlett wrestle in secret with her concerns over her health. Now, as the countdown to Christmas begins, her worst fears are confirmed, and the news she has ovarian cancer begins to seep out.
Partner Jimmy, however, is among the last to know.
“It’s all about to happen,” he says with a knowing grin. “A proper Christmas cracker. Scarlett has been trying to conceal the fact that she’s got the big C. Unselfishly, she doesn’t want to spoil anyone’s Christmas, but Jimmy finds out.
“The fact is this is an issue that affects so many people, hopefully we’ll highlight the different ways that people deal with this awful situation and how it impacts on their lives.
“Most of all, we hope it makes people think. If there’s such a thing as a ‘cure’ for cancer, it’s early detection. When people ignore it, it’s often because they are scared and that in itself becomes part of the problem.
“It’s a proper, ‘Merry Christmas, you’ve got cancer‘, moment, but it’s powerful and I think it’s been very well done.”
Today Billy is part of the Shieldinch furniture, on board for the past five years with a multi-faceted character who’s not all he may initially seem.
“I arrived playing a hitman gangster type who was supposed to keep a watch on Scarlett because she was supposed to have shopped his sidekick’s son to police,” he explains.
“Jimmy starts to fall for Scarlett and as the relationship develops they become a kind of ‘Jack and Vera McDuff’, who love each other but also have their moments.
“He’s a likable rogue, the voice of common sense but with the potential to turn at any moment.”
Likewise, there’s more to Billy too than simply a chap who got into acting by chance. For if real life hadn’t stepped in, he could well have ended up pulling on a Hibs’ strip and playing for his beloved Easter Road side.
His father, Bob, was a miner at Monktonhall Colliery for over 30 years and a passionate football supporter who passed his love of the game down to generations of young players. And he was fiercely determined that his son would not be following him down the mines.
“We lived in Niddrie Milles, opposite the Jack Kane Centre,” recalls Billy, now 53. “My dad ran Niddrie Mills school football team and Jimmy McManus, who became chief scout for Hibs, asked if he wanted to run another team for 12 and 13 year olds. That was how Edina Hibs came about.
“It was a labour of love for my dad,” he adds. “He knew his stuff and he’d be out there in all weather.”
Dad Bob had already given Billy his first introduction to football at his first Hibs’ match when he ws just five years old. Not surprising then, that Billy inherited a passion for the game that eventually translated onto the pitch.
“I played for Edinburgh Primary Schools side that won the Scottish Cup against a Glasgow side at Tynecastle,” smiles Billy. “For me, as a Hibs fan, to hold at Scottish Cup at Tynecastle was brilliant.”
He went on to train with Hibs and with Edinburgh Secondary Schools side, but the break up of his parents’ marriage sounded the beginning of the end for his football hopes.
“It was a shame it fell apart,” he nods. “But these things happen. I was 13 at the time and my mum decided to move with me and my sister Lorna down south to be nearer her sister in Staffordshire.
“I played a little bit, Wolves were interested for a while, but then my dad wasn’t there to push me along, girls happened, and that was it.
“Dad was full on and demanding which made you a relatively good player, but I ended up rebelling. Now I’m at every Hibs game, West Stand, about six rows up from the dug out.
“Some of the River City cameramen freelance filming the football, and they recognise me - my fear is they’ll catch me one day shouting something that shouldn’t be broadcast!”
More important right now, however, is the countdown to his and Scarlett’s big River City drama - when Christmas goes on hold to deal with something much more important.
“River City has been brilliant for me,” says Billy, who commutes to the Dumbarton set from his home in Liberton. “It’s pressurised, you’ve got to have your wits about you to work at the rate we do - we do 52 episodes in just 28 weeks - but it’s a welcoming environment and to work with the likes of Johnny Beattie, Una McLean and Eileen McCallum is amazing.
“I’m lucky, the public seem to like Jimmy and Scarlett - I do get stopped a lot in Edinburgh and I’ve been surprised bu how many people watch it and are overwhelmingly supportive.
“It’s great to be involved in - and hopefully I will be for a long time to come.”
River City is on BBC Scotland, Tuesdays, 8pm.
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