Gay, Welsh, stupid? That's life

`Outstanding!' The word that drew `This Life' to a close also applies to one of its most controversial characters, says Janie Lawrence

The last time we saw Jason Hughes, he had just pitched up at a wedding reception in time for an outbreak of fully-fledged mayhem. Sorry? Jason who?

This should jog your memory. Millie had finally given Rachel a well-deserved thump, Egg was mopping his tears, Miles was smirking and Anna was knocking back another G and T. Yes you've got it. Those final, memorable shots from the series, This Life. Jason - better known as Warren, the gay solicitor - was back from what his on-screen housemates had dubbed "Warren's World Arse Tour".

Since the series finished other This Lifers have gravitated towards high profile roles. Andrew Lincoln was in The Woman in White, Daniela Nardini is starring in a forthcoming C4 series and Ramon Tikaram currently has the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar on stage. Jason, who is currently appearing in an RSC touring production of The Herbal Bed by Peter Whalen, has chosen a different path.

Which is perhaps why he remains the least well-known and why, whenever he's spotted in a pub, the opening gambit's always the same: "They come over and ask, `Are you or aren't you?'" he says. Simply recalling these exchanges brings a startlingly cerise flush to Jason's cheeks. "Dani (Daniela Nardini) and I were the two shy Celts at the back," he says in a distinctive Welsh lilt.

What must be pointed out immediately is that 27-year-old Jason is far - and I do mean far - cuter in the flesh than he ever was on screen. "I didn't get to wear the trendiest gear and my hair just wasn't right," he mumbles awkwardly, when I inform him of this indisputable fact. Where all of the cast members but him have embraced publicity, Jason has until now avoided speaking to a national newspaper. I suspect his three visits to the loo (after only one coffee) may indicate a certain nervousness about the whole business.

Still, let's not beat about the bush. Inevitably that opening are-you- or-aren't-you is closely pursued by another. Warren liked boys. Jason... ?

"No, I like girls." he answers directly. (He lives with his girlfriend of three years, Natasha, in north London.) A daunting role, then, for a straight lad from Porthcawl. Did he know any gay men when he was at school ?

"Oh God, no." So upon learning the role of Warren was his, Jason headed off alone to a selection of gay bars and clubs to put in some intensive research.

"The difficult thing was that I couldn't say. `Actually I'm doing a bit of research.' It would have been rude. They would have felt prostituted." Did he...? "No, I never got off with anyone."

That came later, on screen. In a series that has been praised for its realism, no aspects of gay life were fudged. Thus Jason found himself with two explicit cottaging scenes, some heavy-duty snogging and simulated sex.

"I'll never forget the first time," he recalls. "It wasn't gentle caressing, it was men grabbing each other. And there was all this stubble. I felt very nervous because I'd never done it before. In one bed scene I was bollock naked and I thought, `Well I know about these situations now'."

Was he aware that his portrayal would be closely scrutinised by the gay community? "I had an obligation and a responsibility to them. To make it believable, I had to really think I was enjoying it." On the whole, the feedback was exceedingly positive. Especially from viewers identifying with Warren when he is rejected by his brother, Dale, after Dale has learned the truth. "A lot of letters were from men who were coming out. Nobody wrote and said, `Gay people should be shot and strung up'."

There was one fly in the ointment: a gay journalist who was furious that the role had gone to a heterosexual actor. "That got my back up - where do you draw the line? None of those people you see on The Bill are policemen. What we were interested in was creating a real person who just happened to he gay."

A skinny thing in his Paul Smith jeans, at 18 Jason was three stone heavier. His original intention was to be a professional rugby player. Many of the current Welsh internationals were team mates on his youth team. "I still get a little twinge when I watch Wales play, but I know it wasn't what I was meant to do."

It was his school drama teacher who persuaded him to abandon that ambition. His parents were not best pleased but now, of course they couldn't be prouder. "I wondered what they would make of Warren; but when all the sexy stuff came on they turned the channel and clicked back after the snogging."

If Jason was portraying one minority, equally he was symbolic of another.

Rarely are Welsh accents heard in dramas. "It was nice to see a Welsh character not going `Taffy' and talking like that," he says breaking into a Ruth Madoc Hi-de-Hi voice. "Normally they're going, `Yes I'm Welsh, I'm stupid and I shag sheep'." As his role of a 17th century Englishman in The Herbal Bed testifies, Jason is equally proficient in other accents. He begins to explain the appeal of theatre, but peters out with another hint of pink cheeks, declaring "I'm probably talking pretentious bollocks". However, such is its pulling power he left the second series of This Life in episode seven to return to the stage. In view of the show's success, was he thoroughly barking mad?

"I wanted to move on, I'd got a right juicy part, I'd learned a lot and I'd got great experience. It's hard to justify, but I'd done what I set out to do." He's still in touch with the other cast members. "It was a special thing, a big break for all of us."

Meanwhile he's hoping that one day he will prove similarly credible in love scenes with women. "Maybe I could play a heterosexual in bed with a woman. That would be nice."

The RSC production of `The Herbal Bed' is touring throughout Britain until the end of June.