Cliff said he’d grown up in a “fairly rough” area and had left school without the ability to read or write (Image: BBC)
A Call The Midwife actor has opened up about his “biggest regret” that landed him in prison.
Cliff Parisi, 64, who plays Fred Buckle on the popular and previously played Minty Peterson on , shared insights into a time when he unfortunately found himself on the wrong side of the .
In the latest issue of Saga Magazine, Cliff revealed that he’d grown up in a “fairly rough” area and left school without the ability to read or write; admitting that he didn’t have any “prospects”.
When asked what his biggest regret was, Cliff said: “Trying my luck as a rubbish bank robber and ending up in prison aged 19. Where I grew up was fairly rough.
“I left school at 14 unable to read or write and if you didn’t have any prospects, which I didn’t, you could easily get in trouble. And I did.”
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Cliff Parisi previously played Minty Peterson on EastEnders (Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
He continued: “When the robbery went wrong, I escaped from the bank on a bus. I got away with it for a year. Finally, one of the other guys got arrested and the next thing I knew, the police were knocking on the front door.
“I was just about to go on stage for a big production of South Pacific, but got carted off to Brixton Prison. I got bail and was able to do the show before I was sentenced.”
The actor, who said he used his 18-month to improve his skills, has previously spoken about his tough upbringing, revealing that his family’s former landlady once tried to buy him and his sister from his parents.
He said the landlady threw them out on the street when his mum refused, with his teenage parents, George and Irene Manley, then having to sleep rough in Victoria Park in Hackney with the kids.
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The actor said he used his 18-month stretch to improve his reading skills (Image: MJ Kim/Getty Images)
However, matters got even worse for the family when social services were informed of the situation and took the away, reports the Mirror.
“Mum and Dad jumped on a bus with us but it was chased by a police car and stopped,” Cliff said. “Me and my sister were ripped from their arms and they were both left sobbing by the side of the road.”
Cliff, who told the story to producer Heidi Thomas for her book ‘The Life and Times of Call the Midwife’, was then put in a home in Reading with his sister before they were eventually returned to their parents.
Speaking to the in 2019, Cliff shed further light on the robbery before he entered the jungle, saying: “This has hung over me like a black cloud. It was a massive mistake that I made and I deeply regret it.”