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ALEX Adams may be the slick, heart-throb surgeon on BBC1's new hospital drama series Holby City, but he is played by a tearaway who rides a zippy Gilera Runner 180 scooter and whose favourite pastime is burning off bigger bikes from the traffic lights. "My Gilera has unbelievable acceleration, better even than a Porsche," laughs Jeremy Sheffield, who lives in London. "I get a real buzz arriving at a set of traffic lights along with all the hard bikes, and shooting them off when the lights change to green. "But the real reason I own a scooter is for practicality and lack of stress. I used to be into old cars, but got fed up with them breaking down and the lack of parking. Scooters make sense in town. They're cheap to run, parking is free, you don't have to worry about congestion and I reckon mine looks cool. And when I ride I have to concentrate, which forces me to relax. I feel good after an outing on it." Jeremy, 34, who joined the Royal Ballet School while at school and performed with Rudolph Nureyev in the Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House at the age of 10, started off on Vespas. "It was a nightmare getting to the Royal Opera House, so I bought a PX125," he explains. "I later suffered a series of work-related injuries and I was forced to take on character roles. I've done 57 commercials in the last six years. "The only downside to riding a scooter is the wet. I hate the rain, because even with the right equipment it's not practical if I have to go to a meeting in a suit. However, the plusses outweigh the minuses by miles. The Gilera has a certain subtlety about it, it's lots of fun and it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. "I've only had one close shave, when I overtook a stationary car on the inside and it suddenly turned in front of me. That woke me up to the reality of being on two wheels."
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