Steve Speirs: Hollywood actor was nearly a Hoover apprentice

Steve Speirs' father had a job lined up for him at Hoover's Merthyr Tydfil factory

He is best known for his roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Extras.

But Steve Speirs' life could have been completely different if he had followed his father to the local Hoover factory.

Seventy years ago the 'Home of Hoover' opened in Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, mainly making washing machines.

By the time the Queen visited the plant in 1973 there were about 5,000 people working at the factory, including Speirs' father Vince Roberts, who stayed for 35 years.

"My father started out on the factory line," said Speirs. "Then he became a line leader, and worked his way up to superintendent. He was 18 when he started and it was his entire career."

Speirs, who has also appeared in Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace as well as numerous TV shows, had uncles and cousins who worked at the factory, and his family was one of many whose lives revolved around it.

• Hoover factory was 'home from home'

"Within the Merthyr area everyone knew someone who worked at the factory," said Speirs.

"There was something about the factory clock that dictated all our lives round here.

"At the change of shift we would know not to bother going out because Hoover is out, at 4.30pm the whole of the area was just full with all the cars coming out.

"As kids our play was dictated by when dad was working nights, and the factory would close for two weeks a year at the end of July so everyone had a holiday at that time."

Speirs' father Vince Roberts (right) on the factory line at Hoover

At Christmas the factory held parties for children of their employees.

"Hoover presents were the best," said the actor and writer.

"If you had any tenuous relationship with anyone who worked at Hoover you would become a cousin or an uncle or aunt very quickly."

The factory was so much a part of their lives that Speirs' father had a job lined up for him in case his acting aspirations fell through.

"I think he was disappointed when I went to do my A-levels," he said.

"For my father that job meant security. Once you'd done a year there you had a job for life and people who worked there felt they were part of something, part of a family."

And when Speirs married his first wife the wedding present was a Hoover washing machine made from start to finish by his father.

"Rather than it be passed through a number of hands he did the whole thing himself. It lasted for years - longer than my first marriage," he said.

But time for the factory in Merthyr was limited, and in March 2009 production moved abroad. Mr Speirs senior had already left.

"I think he knew that things were changing and so when he was offered redundancy in 1993 he just took it," he said.

"What has changed now is the notion of a job for life. I don't think that is there any more.

"But my dad always said he has got that apprenticeship there for me in case my career starts going badly. You never know, I might need it."

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Archive photograph: Hoover's washing machine production line at Pentrebach