TV Week
9th December 1995
Back on screen in Law Of The Land, Peter O’Brien has a penchant for dicing with trouble …
Law Of The Land’s Peter O’Brien has a reputation for being caught in perilous situations.
Peter, who plays lawyer Andy Cochrane in the Nine Network series, was once chased through the streets of Hobart by a gang of male teenagers eager for his blood.
Fortunately, Peter outsmarted the gang and escaped down an alley.
More recently, he narrowly avoided serious injury when his VW Kombi was destroyed by a four-wheel drive that had sped through a red light.
These experiences, however, pale in comparisons to the dangers Peter has endured overseas.
While filming his role in the medical series Cardiac Arrest in Glasgow, Peter, 34, and his cast-mates were accommodated in a hotel with a 24-hour bar – a perilous distraction, he jokes, for any actor.
“But some sections of Glasgow can be pretty scary,” Peter says.
“It’s a brilliant city, but there are a few problems there with violence. Because the ha been an average of 21 stabbings per day, it’s become known as ‘Blade City’.”
While sitting with work colleagues in a restaurant, Peter witnessed a brutal and unprovoked knife attack.
“This guy was just casually walking past the window of the restaurant and all of a sudden another guy jumped out of a lane and slashed him across the face with a knife. He cut him from eyebrow to chin and there was blood absolutely everywhere.
“Luckily, I was sitting with a bloke who’s a medical supervisor on Cardiac Attest and he was able to stop the bleeding. I was just stunned by the whole event.
“Another time I was on holiday in Greece and was with a couple of Swedish girls – I knew their boyfriends. We were in a nightclub was a couple of Greek guys showed some interest in them. The guys pulled a knife on me.
“The police were called, and when I told them I’d be sleeping on the beach during my stay, I was deported.”
Back in Scotland, Peter is enjoying life on the set of Cardiac Arrest, in which he plays Dr Cyril “Scissors” Smedley.
“One of my favourite lines in the show is where my character approaches a patient after surgery.
“I say to him, ‘the operation went well, you’re recovering fine and we managed to remove the potato!”
“This is one of the best shows I’ve worked on. It’s very bleak at times, but also very truthful.”
Law Of The Land returns on Wednesday, December 13, at 7.30pm.
Original content copyright TV Week.