PUBLISHED ONDecember 16, 2022 7:37 AMByDrima ChakrabortyIf you see the words “police and thief” and your response is “trying to get along,” you know you were a fan of local sitcoms in the mid 2000s.
Police & Thief ran from 2004 and 2010 and became a formative memory for many Singaporeans, young and old. Suhaimi Yusof played Sergeant Dollah Abu Bakar, a policeman living next door to Mark Lee’s Lee Tok Kong, a former gangster and the titular “thief”.
However, the family sitcom would not be complete without the extended cast — especially Dollah and Tok Kong’s kids, Rudy (Hafiz Nasir), Rafi (Danial Ashriq), Xiao Long (Glenn Wong) and Xiao Yun (Ang Ching Hui), who got up to their own shenanigans.
On a recent episode of CNA Insider’s On The Red Dot, the cast were invited to reminisce about the sitcom and their time filming it. However, not all of the children’s antics were funny, at least for the only girl in the group, Ching Hui.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFePDma6DMg&ab_channel=CNAInsider[/embed]
“You really had to be a Pa,” Glenn, 30, told Mark. “You had to handle both the acting as well as the quarrels [among the kids].”
“Please lah, the three of you always bullied the one girl,” Mark, 54, retorted.
The 29-year-old child actress-turned-graphic designer revealed some of the bullying she had experienced on set which led her to believe the boys didn’t like her: “There were instances where they locked me in the fitting room.”
This came as a surprise to Mark and Suhaimi, who didn’t realise the teasing had gotten so bad.
She added: “I never told anybody [about the bullying], because I thought maybe I was overthinking it.”
She also remembered a scene where they had to throw things at each other, but even after the take, the boys didn’t stop pelting her.
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Currently working as a process technician, 32-year-old Hafiz admitted that the bullying had reached the point where Chin Hui’s mother had to be involved to talk to him.
Chin Hui said: “I remember Hafiz coming to me and telling me [the bullying] was going to stop, and I remember that very, very distinctly because I was so moved.”
Glenn, now a civil servant, apologised for causing Chin Hui so much hurt and Danial tried to explain why the boys would be so mean to her.
The 31-year-old actor said: “It didn’t mean anything [personal], at that point, you were the only girl around, so it was only natural to pick on the odd one out — so we would like to apologise.”
Suhaimi, Mark and his onscreen wife Sharon Wong were relieved as all was forgiven among their “kids”.
“Boys growing up to become men, they [will] apologise,” Suhaimi, 53, noted.
The show of neighbourly love and forgiveness didn’t stop Suhaimi from airing his own grievances about his onscreen kids, Hafiz and Danial.
“As a father figure, I’d bring them to eat really nice food at Far East Plaza: Drive them there, eat, buy them whatever they want,” he said.
But, one day he noticed a “big black-coloured dot” on the passenger seat.
When asked about it at that time, Hafiz’s response was a cheeky: “I was experimenting with your car.”
After all these years, Hafiz had to ‘fess up and tell the real story, which he deemed was “actually even worse”.
The cheeky boy had pushed the cigarette lighter in Suhaimi’s car out when their onscreen dad had gone to the ATM to withdraw money.
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“Instead of putting it on my hand — I was being clever — I put it on the seat, so the seat got burnt,” he revealed.
At this point, Suhaimi picked up a stool and pretended to hit Hafiz with it, to peals of laughter from the rest of the cast.
What was worse is that it was Hari Raya season and Suhaimi had given the kids a whopping $50 each as Hari Raya money, and Hafiz felt bad for keeping quiet when he accepted it.
“You still dared to take the money?” Mark yelled incredulously. “You burn people’s car and you still take the money?”
But all was forgiven once again as Hafiz said: “Sorry, abba” and kissed Suhaimi’s hand and gave him a hug.
“Sorry, your head!” Suhaimi laughed.
Mark insisted in jest: “$50, give back!”
drimac@asiaone.com
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