Gary Bleasdale (born in Liverpool, Lancashire in 1962) is an English actor. Bleasdale has appeared in many television programmes since 1978 when his first role was playing the lead in an episode of the final series of Z-Cars. He played Kevin Dean in The Black Stuff (1978), and its sequel Boys From the Black Stuff, (1982). He was a regular on The Harry Enfield Show for ten years playing one of The Scousers. He has also appeared in Casualty, Roger Roger, The Bill and many other UK television dramas. He played the Sheriff's sergeant in the 2006 BBC adaptation of Robin Hood. Bleasdale played a brute in 'On The Ledge', at The Royal Court Liverpool in April/May 2008 and Terry in 'Lost Soul' at The Royal Court in September 2008. He also had a part as a bar patron in the Ouroboros episode of the BBC TV series Red Dwarf.
As a playwright he has written three radio plays for BBC Radio 4. His second radio play, A Song For Edmond Shakespeare, was shortlisted to be nominated for a Sony Radio Award in 2006. His most recent radio play, Eight Frames a Second, is a dramatised account of the life of the early cinema pioneer and inventor, William Friese-Greene.
Paul John McGann is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial The Monocled Mutineer (1986), then starred in the dark comedy Withnail and I (1987), which was a critical success and developed a cult following. McGann later became more widely known for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 television film Doctor Who. He is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush in the series Hornblower.
Bernard Hill is an English actor. He is known for playing Théoden, King of Rohan, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill was also known for playing roles in television dramas, including Yosser Hughes, the troubled "hard man" whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff in the 1980s, and more recently, as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
Nicolas Michael Angelis was an English actor. He was best known for his television roles as Chrissie Todd in Boys from the Blackstuff, Martin Niarchos in G.B.H. and as a UK narrator of the British children's series Thomas & Friends from 1991 to 2012, as well as several other products and media related to the franchise.
Michael Brandon is an American actor. He is known for his role as James Dempsey in the British drama series Dempsey and Makepeace (1985–1986). His theatre credits include the original Broadway production of Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969), and playing Jerry Springer in the West End production of Jerry Springer: The Opera (2003–2004).
Alan George Bleasdale is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels. Bleasdale's plays typically represented a more realistic, contemporary depiction of life in Liverpool than was usually seen in the media.
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British drama television series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
Robert Lindsay Stevenson is an English actor. He is the recipient of a British Academy Television Award, a Tony Award, and two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Martin Shaw is an English actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series The Professionals (1977–1983). Further notable television parts include the title roles in The Chief (1993–1995), Judge John Deed (2001–2007) and Inspector George Gently (2007–2017). He has also acted on stage and in film, and has narrated numerous audiobooks and presented various television series.
William Tulloch Paterson is a Scottish actor with a career in theatre, film, television and radio. Throughout his career he has appeared regularly in radio drama and provided the narration for a large number of documentaries. He has appeared in films and TV series including Comfort and Joy (1984), Traffik (1989), Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1986), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Wives and Daughters (1999), Sea of Souls (2004–2007), Amazing Grace (2006), Miss Potter (2006), Little Dorrit (2008), Doctor Who (2010), Outlander (2014), Fleabag (2016–2019), Inside No. 9 (2018), Good Omens (2019), and Brassic (2020). He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Scottish BAFTAs.
Norman Lugard Beaton was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom. He became best known for his role as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series Desmond's. The writer Stephen Bourne has called him "the most influential and highly regarded black British actor of his time".
Susan Elizabeth Jenkins is an English actress. She is most widely known for her roles as Gloria Todd in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (1985–1988) and as Jackie Corkhill in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside (1991–2001).
Robert Lewis Glenister is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the crime drama series Hustle (2004–2012) and Nicholas Blake in the spy drama series Spooks (2006–2010).
Alison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the ‘50 Greatest Actors’ voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42.
Tom Georgeson is an English actor, known for his television and film work. His most notable credits have been supporting parts in Between the Lines (1992–94) and in three dramas by Alan Bleasdale: Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Scully (1984), and G.B.H. (1991). He appeared as the lawyer's clerk Clamb in the BBC One serial Bleak House (2005).
David Ross is an English actor who has worked in theatre, cinema and television. His best-known roles include playing the first Kryten and the second Talkie Toaster in science-fiction comedy Red Dwarf, Elgin Sparrowhawk in the BBC One sitcom The Green Green Grass, and as Mr. Sedley in a 1998 serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair.
Anna Maxwell Martin, sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a British actress. She won two British Academy Television Awards, for her portrayals of Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House (2005) and N in the Channel 4 adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare (2008). She is also known for her roles as DCS Patricia Carmichael in BBC One crime drama Line of Duty (2019–2021) and Kelly Major in Code 404 (2020–present). Since 2016, Martin has starred in the BBC comedy Motherland (2018−present), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.
Roger Sloman is an English actor known for his work in theatre, film and television.
Andrew Schofield is an English actor best known for starring as the Narrator in Willy Russell’s original production of the musical Blood Brothers in 1983.
Scully is a British television drama with some comedy elements set in Liverpool, England, that originated from a BBC Play For Today episode "Scully's New Year's Eve". Originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour final episode. It was written by playwright Alan Bleasdale. The drama is notable for featuring many of the Liverpool football club first-team squad of that era.
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