S: This is from Bob, it says here, "can you ask your guest here if the actors in all three CSI series have eyesight problems. Fair enough torches in the dark but in the broad daylight with the sun shining!"

G: (laughs) Yeah I was joking with one of our directors before I left town and he's joking that there must be a flashlight in every one of his shots. It seems to be our weapon of choice on our show, no guns but we have flashlights for every shot.

S: I find that reassuring.

G: (laughs) Exactly

S: Lots of other CSI stuff to talk about, I've got to ask you about playing Phil Lynott. Now this is a bio pic, is it for TV or is this going to be a movie?

G: You know I'm not really sure of the advancement of it. I know that I went over to Dublin about 2 years ago and spoke to Philomena Lynott and talked to Noel Pearson...

(Simon interrupts)

S: That's his mum, yeah?

G: Yeah and she's a wonderful, wonderful woman, strong, spry. She drove me around Dublin for a few hours and just talked to me and took me around great areas that she grew up in and we talked about the project. They're all really excited about it, but Noel Pearson is trying to produce it and I think he's gotten a bit thwarted by the Hollywood system of events trying to green light a picture, so I'm not exactly sure exactly where that is and where it stands right now.

S: So it's still a project that you're attached to?

G: Yes, so they say.

S: Because until I was reading this last night it never occurred to me what an extraordinary story that would be. I mean Phil Lynott being an illegitimate black kid in the Republic of Ireland where there are very few black people at all and he produced that extraordinary music.

G: (Speaks in Irish accent) Yeah, yeah and he had an extraordinary voice as well that full Ireland voice that you know just that whole thick headed Dublin thing. He's great!

(Simon interrupts)

S: You're there already. Did you try that on his mum?

G: No! I was pretty scared to do that, his mum's a tough woman.

S: Can you play the Boys are back in Town.

G: Oh yeah! You know there was another great opportunity I had when I was in London around the same time, I got to see the whole band play with Gary [Moore] and the original band members [Thin Lizzy] and they rocked. I think it was down on the Palladium, I think it was here in town and they rocked so if people ever get the chance and you see them on the bill go check them out, they'll surprise you because they still have it.

S: Music is quite a big thing for you anyway isn't it, it's not just because of the Phil Lynott thing but you have your own band?

G: Well I had a band back in New York called the Bell Cafe and we've just recently started revisiting and getting back together. We had the band about six years, we played every Sunday at this event. But since I've been working on the show, there's not a lot of time to take care of band mates, you know they can be like kids, you know, you can be wiping their butts a lot of times, so that?

(Simon interrupts)

S: They haven't got cross with you have they?

G: No, we're all really great friends.

S: (laughs) Their jealous aren't they, their jealous.

G: (laughs) Yeah, maybe so, but we've been recording music and getting things together and talking about doing some gigs in the summertime. But I've just been recording with a lot of different artists, I did a track with DMC and we ended up at the Live 8 concert, the one in Barrie, in Canada. Unfortunately we didn't get over here to see London with you guys to have that big concert that was fantastic. But we saw everything that was happening, we had the TV screens down there as well and I've just been involving myself in little music projects here and there. Just takes the edge off, you know working on the show.

S: That's something else you have in common with Quentin Tarantino because he loves to talk about his music. He puts all his favourite hits in his films.

G: He's an encyclopaedia of knowledge in regards to music and film. That guy can name the most obscure actor in some old western and also name the most obscure French hip-hop track or something like that. He's amazing!

S: This from Alanis. "Could you tell Gary that me and my sister love him, we do. CSI is an event for us once a week and we "ooh" and "ahh" to each other over the phone as the plot unfolds for the whole hour that the show is on. Tell Gary that his character getting married at the beginning of season six was a rubbish idea by the producers because we prefer Warrick single."

G: (laughs) Well thank you girls, big love back to you.

S: I think their heartbroken.

Yeah, well that alright.

I think maybe there are also people that have confused real life for television.

G: Well there needs to be more love in the world, that's all I have to say.

S: What else do we get to see you in?

G: Well there's a lot of changes with the characters, a lot of little dramas between us. It's not getting like a soap opera, but you know, you need that in a show I suppose.

S: And beyond CSI or are you contracted to that for the foreseeable future.

G: Well of course I have a contract with that, but we're talking about doing other things in the summer. If they can get me the action, get on another film set after we break instead of going off to England or something.

S: Well we look forward to that and the Phil Lynott bio pic when it happens, will look forward to that. There's a soundtrack album waiting to be made.

G: (slips vaguely into Irish accent again) That's true isn't it.

S: Gary Dourdan, thank you very much indeed for your time and we look forward to seeing you on the National TV Awards tonight.

G: Awesome! See you there.

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