Ear plugs ready? The A-Team returns to ITV this Saturday with a little caper in which our four soldiers of fortune bravely take on half the US Army.
Actually, it may not be all that noisy. While the series was being filmed earlier this year, a Los Angeles sneak-thief ran off with a truck containing all the units special-effect bombs and ammunition. The Team are still looking for him... That wasn't the only production mishap. George Peppard, who plays CoI. Hannibal Smith, fell off a lorry during a stunt and needed 20 stitches in his back. Filming had to be suspended for 10 days. And the Team's token female, Marla Heasley, who plays Tawnia Baker, was signed up and then sacked within the space of a few episodes. 'She understands', says producer John Ashley, 'that the four men are the thrust of the show.' None of those men is more thrustful than Mr. T., the mountain of musle and jewellery who plays B.A. Baracus. 'Who is the biggest star in the world and who do kids love most?' he asks. 'Say it ain't me and I'll break every bone in your body.' He is like a Hollywood Pied Piper, followed everywhere by children. Luckily he likes them and has spent most of this past year offering them his home-grown gospel in schools and at street corners. Simply put, he's for education and religion, and very much against drink, drugs and delinquency. 'I'm trying t set an example for the people who have been on welfare, who have come from broken homes - as I have,' he says. 'You don't have to be snitching nobody's purse. You don't have to be turning to drugs. I grew up with all that around me but I didn't get involved because I saw something higher. It's not where you come from, it's where you're going. 'If you want to be successful, do what the teachers tell you, ' he booms out to the kids. 'If they say "read", read. I'm glad you know me from TV, but I don't want you to watch my show if you haven't done your homework.' Now he has put his message to music, launching out as a singer with a rock song and video called Be Somebody. George Peppard, meanwhile, is hoping you'll see less and less of him this series. He has decided to spice up the show with some wild disguises. So watch out for tramps, women, Mexicans and Chinese in the series. Any one of them might be him.
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