Jason Hope, once a star of the British TV soap `Brookside', has made a new home in Bermuda -- as a hairdresser in Hamilton. Neil Roberts discussed his move from acting on the small screen to wielding a pair of scissors.

He went from Brookside to Bermuda and from soap to shampoo.

Once he was Merseyside's most famous Policeman. Now he's the forgotten man on Brookside Close, home of one of Britain's top soaps.

But Pc Rod Corkhill has finally been tracked down, six years after quitting his role in Brookside, and 3,000 miles away from his Liverpool home.

Rod the Plod, real name Jason Hope, has traded his handcuffs for a hair drier and his truncheon for a trimmer.

Because now he's a fully fledged barber -- and he works at Hamilton barber shop Squires.

Jason, 28, looks back fondly on his days in Brookside Close, and insists his acting isn't dead -- it's just resting.

And his message to British-based TV producers is crystal clear: "Don't forget about me!'' "I think my acting career is basically on hold at the moment but I haven't given it up, no,'' says Jason.

"I'm enjoying it over here. Something like acting is indefinite. There's no career time limit like there is for footballers. I would say you can go back at any time, even when you're 80 or 90.

"And right now I think I want to further my hairdressing career.'' Jason, son of 1950s British amateur boxing champ Frank Hope, moved to Bermuda in November, 1996, following the footsteps of brothers Gary, David and Darren.

Even sister Gaynor has moved in on the act and found herself a hairdressing chair on the Island.

But unlike Gary and Dave, both big-hitting amateur boxers, Jason was always more interested in treading the boards than the ropes.

He would leave West Derby Comprehensive School and catch the bus into town for youth theatre sessions at the Playhouse and the Everyman.

But one thing he did learn from his mum Joan was hairdressing, helping out at the Perfections barber shop still run by his parents in Liverpool.

"They're still there to this day. In fact, they've been going longer than the Beatles,'' says Jason, who got his formal hairdressing qualification from Hugh Baird College.

"I used to help out at the shop as a kid, on Saturday mornings. You know, scrubbing the old ladies' hair.'' He stopped snipping when he snapped up the Brookside part after two auditions at the set in Croxteth Park, a short walk from the old family home in West Derby.

Jason was a mainstay on the show for seven years before being written out when his wife had an affair -- and he "rode off into the sunset'', to quote his own recollection of leaving the Close.

Always modest, he still feels he won the part on the strength of "looking like'' the rest of the family -- parents Doreen and Billy (Kate Fitzgerald and John McArdle) and sister Tracey (Justine Kerrigan).

Hope's escape to the sun Seven years and hundreds of episodes later, Jason was riding off into the sunset. Four years on again, and he really was going in search of the sun.

The intervening years had seen him gain a cookery qualification, go to art college, film an advert for the National Fisheries Board and start hairdressing.

But brother Darren gave him the call that the Squires beauty salon in Bermuda's capital, Hamilton, was looking for a gent's hairdresser. And Jason flew out to a different world at a moment's notice.

And despite all, Jason knows Brookside gave him experiences most Scousers (Liverpudlians) could not even dream of. He is grateful for that.

And he still rates it as "the best soap in the world'' for its realism and treatment of delicate issues -- although his own memory of his own storylines is now somewhat sketchy.

Only the die-hard Brookie fans, mostly Merseysiders exiled in Bermuda, recognise him now.

But he does miss Liverpool's nightlife -- and his beloved Liverpool FC. Now he gets his football fix once a week at local sports pubs.

"There's quite a few Scousers over here and it's like a home from home in some ways,'' says Jason.

"And one of my mates gets the Liverpool Echo sent out for the match reports.

You don't feel so far from home when you get to read the Echo, do you?'' There's also the odd customer in his barber shop who recognises his accent and speaks just the same.

And his brothers are just around the corner if he gets really homesick -- ready with some boxing gloves if he ever steps out of line.