Jim Alexander had never watched an episode of Dream Team before he got a part on the show. Alexander, who is no longer an actor, took up the role of Jamie Parker in season four of the Sky One show based around fictional Premier League side Harchester United.
As he was playing the role of a keeper, and the show's producers required someone who could look believable on camera, a football audition preceded an acting audition.
My agent put me forward for it. I went for an audition where I remember I had to do a football audition - I had to catch a few footballs with Andy Ansah. He was firing some footballs at me and I had to catch them - I looked a little bit like a goalkeeper. I then had to do an acting audition where they liked it.
Alexander says he had played plenty of cricket, though not as much football. He was used to catching a ball, morphing into an on-screen goalkeeper came easily enough.
At the time, Alexander did not realise the popularity of the show or the cult following which it would build. He'd been in plenty of commercials and ITV show London's Burning.
After three years on Dream Team, his favourite storyline was his last - one which saw him take the Harchester dressing room hostage. "It happens every week in Premiership football," he laughs.
The character of Jamie Parker would depart the show in a body bag having been shot by police after a siege. Alexander knew his end was coming, it was something he requested.
"I asked to leave after three years, or whatever it was. They gave me that storyline, my exit, which was a lot of fun to do. It was obviously slightly over the top but it was a really good finale. It was a great way to exit the show.
They tried to get me to stay and I just said no. They were going to kill me off. I was pretty pleased with it. I thought I was going to try and do this some justice and hopefully I did."
Looking back now, Alexander says he wishes that he'd remained as part of the cast for a bit longer.
I suppose back then I was very naive, very young and I just wanted to do more things and do other stuff. I was doing a lot of music at the time. I was going to put all my efforts into that. I just started going in different directions. I'd done three years of Dream Team. It seemed like a good time to move on. If I'd had my time again, I'd probably have done something but that's the way it worked out at the time.
His time on Dream Team was one he thoroughly enjoyed. "The people were great. It was good fun. It was hard work. It was really good times. We had a hell of a lot of fun," he says.
Though, one aspect which it sounds like he enjoyed less than others was the recording of the in-game footage - close-ups of him saving shots and patting the odd teammate on the back.
"It was very lonely because we had to film them at Millwall in the Old Den. The big close-up shot with no one in the stands at all. It can be quite cold and lonely standing around on the pitch with no atmosphere."
His favourite memories from the working on Dream Team are also the haziest.
There were many, many memories. Probably some of trips we had. We came over to Tolka Park. Going to Ireland was always great fun. We used to come over to Dublin quite a lot, play football and then have debauched, drunken evenings out. They're always very memorable. I used to always enjoy coming over to Dublin.
