Spy: Outrageous Fortune prequel star growing the mo

Will Hall in Westside Story.

Spy's favourite Movember Man, Nothing Trivial star Will Hall, reckons his new moustache will go down as one of the best of all time.

He's started filming Westside Story, the Outrageous Fortune prequel set to screen on TV3 next year, and given it is set in the 70s and his character is a cop ... well, a mo was always going to be necessary.

"Yes, the moustache was celebrated as a powerful, highly sexual facial feature [in the 70s]," he told Spy.

Pity his TV 'tache won't count for Movember this year because he grew it before November 1. The "Mo Mentor" plays cop Mike McCarthy in the series, the nemesis of a young Ted West, played by LA-based Kiwi actor David De Lautour. The pair told Spy they're loving life in the 70s.

"I watched a documentary in preparation for this role. It's an old TV doco about the establishment of the suburb of Meadowbank in the 1970s and there's a group of kids of different ages who wander around the neighbourhood in bare feet playing with sticks.

"Watching them made me think that's a way better education than doing something like watching YouTube which is kind of the 'hobby' of kids today," said De Lautour, who was star of The Kick, the movie about All Black World Cup hero Stephen Donald.

So has he shaken out the Beaver?

"Ha ha, yeah, I think so! Actually, I did the medical check for Westside Story recently and found out I'd lost 10kg since doing The Kick, so I guess that means Beaver's fully gone at this point!"

Co-star Antonia Prebble plays Ted's wife Rita - a nice synergy, given her role as their granddaughter Loretta in Outrageous Fortune.

"Antonia is obviously key to the show. Her character in Outrageous was always likened to her grandma, Rita (and she played her in flashbacks). Antonia is totally different in Westside Story, and fans will be blown away by her 70s chic. It's quite far removed from the baggy jeans and black tees I remember Loretta wearing in Outrageous," Hall said.