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	Printed Articles & Interviews (Sydney) Daily Telegraph April 4, 1996

BRUCE Greenwood thinks now would be a good time for his stunt double to step in. He's on top of a 15-storey building in Portland, Oregon, cellular phone pressed close to his ear and all but shouting to be heard over the sound of the howling wind. As soon as this transcontinental interview is over, the star of the Seven Network's new series Nowhere Man has to teeter precariously on the building's edge. They're filming the climax of an all-American TV chase scene. And, if Greenwood is feeling somewhat reluctant at the prospect of wandering near the roof's edge, you can't blame him. After all, he's become something of an an aficionado when it comes to conspiracy theories. His character, Tom Veil, has just spent 16 espisodes evading unseen forces intent on seeing him dead; after a while, he concedes, it's all too easy to get used to the idea of living in fear. ""It's all a bit scary,'' he said (of the show's concept, not his present predicament). ""My character goes from a happily married photojournalist to a kind of fugitive running from mysterious government forces and in the bizarre predicament of trying to prove he actually does exist.'' When one of Veil's pictures _ of a Third-World military execution _ raises the ire of those ""powers that be'', Veil finds himself the target of a campaign of extreme intimidation.

All records of his existence vanish _ birth certificate, bank accounts, social security numbers _ and friends and relatives won't acknowledge him. Forced into compliance by ""them'', Veil's wife and mother shun him, leaving our hero in a desperate struggle not only to stay alive, but also to remain sane. ""The frightening thing is how easily in this information age people can be dissociated from their identity,'' Greenwood said. ""Our identity depends so much on how we appear on a computer database or a piece of paper and it can so easily be manipulated or tampered with.'' Greenwood readily admits the producers of Nowhere Man are more than happy to ride the wave of paranoia created by shows such as The X-Files. ""Our executive producer, Lawrence Hertzog, was a big fan of the Twilight Zone,'' he says. ""But where The X-Files often deal with the paranormal, we allude to a threat which is, in a lot of ways, much more real. ""I truly believe these sorts of things actually happen to people; in one fleeting minute you can go from a functioning member of society to a technically non-existent one.'' Nowhere Man, Seven, tonight, 9.30.