Content area
Full Text
Joe Shaw was nervous enough as it was. This was his debut TV role. The kind very few young actors land.
But Joe has been relatively lucky.
"Relatively" because his dad is Martin Shaw, star of the pounds 10 million TV epic Rhodes, which the BBC hopes will be its Nineties equivalent of The Jewel In The Crown.
Joe portrays the younger Rhodes - and it was a blood ritual. Playing the junior while his dad stood in the wings, ready to take over. Hoping to cope with a seen-it-all film crew.
But then it happened. Joe noticed a pall of smoke on the horizon on the set in this South African wilderness. A massive bush fire had broken out.
Within 20 minutes, it was upon them.
"The British Army tents caught alight, wind billowing the fire closer and closer to the whole town of Kimberley which we had built," says Joe.
"Everyone pitched in. The director was manning a hose. We were beating the fire with our jackets, blankets, anything that came to...