Jobs by appointment to Royle Family's Ricky

Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson found jobs for the boys by recruiting all his mates as extras for a new TV show.

The comic actor roped his pals in to play the crowd at a boxing match in the show Nice Guy Eddie which begins later this month on BBC1.

Tomlinson, who plays a private investigator in the programme, even managed to find a role for his partner Rita, a former social worker.

He said: ‘‘In one episode there was a huge boxing scene and it was being held at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool and we needed lots of extras.

‘‘I just loved getting loads of my old mates in as extras - even Rita got involved. I worked with many of them as an extra years ago some went on to be actors and others are still doing a bit of extra work.

‘‘Out of the 90-odd people in the crowd scenes I knew about half. Lots of them are still my friends.’’

Tomlinson added: ‘‘It’s important to keep up contacts and as far as letting it all go to my head is concerned, this lot would soon let me know if they thought I’d bloody well forgot myself.’’