Graham Seed (born 12 July 1950, in London) is an English actor.
Seed was educated at Charterhouse School, an independent boarding school in the market town of Godalming in Surrey, followed by RADA in London.
Seed is best known for playing Nigel Pargetter in the BBC radio series The Archers from 1983 [1] until January 2011, although actor Nigel Carrington briefly played the role when Seed took a break in the late 1980s. Seed appeared in the well-known "Is it on the Trolley?" sketch, alongside Victoria Wood (its author) and Duncan Preston in the series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV . [2]
After his character's death in The Archers in 2011, Seed played himself as the villain in a Radio 4 pantomime who plans to bring down Radio 4 by releasing the Pips, but ultimately falls to his death whilst retrieving a banner, paralleling his Archers character. In addition to The Archers, Seed has appeared in the TV soap operas Brookside (1995–97, as Dick Thornton), Coronation Street (1981, as a solicitor) and Crossroads (1985–88, as Charlie Mycroft). [3] [4]
Seed's roles include the teenage Britannicus, son of the emperor Claudius in the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius (1976), Harrop in William Boyd's Channel 4 Film Good and Bad at Games (1983) and Jorkins in the first episode "Et in Arcadia ego" of the Granada Television television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (1981). He also appeared in ATV's Edward the Seventh (1975), Bergerac (1981), C.A.B. (1986) Midsomer Murders (2009) and Wild Target (2010). [1]
Seed and his first wife, Claire Colvin, were parents to theatre producer Nicola, and jazz guitarist Toby (1988–2018). [5] [6] [7] In 2013, Seed married theatre producer Denise Silvey. [8] [9]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the main setting is Denmark.
The Archers is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". Having aired over 20,000 episodes, it is the world's longest-running present-day drama by number of episodes.
Victoria Wood was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class.
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is a retired English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on stage and television, including stints in both Coronation Street and EastEnders, and Not Going Out, as the original Geoffrey Adams. He is married to the actress Prunella Scales; from 2014 to 2019, they travelled together on UK and overseas canals in the Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys.
Frederick Charles Jones was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in The Dresser; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in The Elephant Man (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2005 to 2018.
Nigel Allan Havers is an English actor and presenter. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war drama Empire of the Sun; and as Ronny in the 1984 David Lean epic A Passage to India. Television roles include Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up and Lewis Archer in Coronation Street, between 2009 and 2019.
What The Papers Say is a British radio and television series. It consists of quotations from headlines and comment pages in the previous week's newspapers, read in a variety of voices and accents by actors. The quotes are linked by a script read by a studio presenter, usually a prominent journalist. The show did not have a regular host, and was intended as a wry look at how British broadsheets and tabloids covered the week's news stories. The programme was most recently broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Toby Stephens is a British actor who has appeared in films in the UK, US and India. He is known for the roles of Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, William Gordon in the 2005 Mangal Pandey: The Rising film and Edward Fairfax Rochester in the 2006 BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre. From 2014 to 2017, he starred as Captain Flint in the Starz television series Black Sails, followed by one of the lead roles in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space from 2018 to 2021. He currently stars as the Greek God Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
David Parfitt is an English film producer, actor, and co-founder of Trademark Films. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 71st Academy Awards for Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Simon Williams is a British actor known for playing James Bellamy in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Frequently playing upper middle class or aristocratic upper class roles, he is also known for playing Charles Cartwright in the sitcom Don't Wait Up and Charles Merrick in medical drama Holby City. Since 2014, he has played the character of Justin Elliott in the long-running BBC Radio 4 series The Archers.
Francis Bernard Heptonstall better known by the stage name Bernard Hepton, was an English theatre director and actor. He is known for his stage work and television roles in teleplays and series, he also appeared briefly on radio and in film.
Toby Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.
Alison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1977 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for Abigail's Party, 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.
Rosemary Anne Leach was a British stage, television and film actress. She won the 1982 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play for 84, Charing Cross Road and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her roles in the films That'll Be the Day (1973) and A Room with a View (1985).
Nigel Lindsay is an English actor. He is best known on television for his roles as Sir Robert Peel in the first two seasons of Victoria, Jo Jo Marshall in the Netflix series Safe and as Barry in the BAFTA-winning Chris Morris film Four Lions for which he was nominated for Best British Comedy Performance in Film at the 2011 British Comedy Awards.
Souad Adel Faress is a stage, radio, television and film actress based in United Kingdom. She is best known for her portrayal of the solicitor Usha Gupta, in the long-running BBC Radio 4 serial The Archers and for her role as the High Priestess of the Dosh Khaleen in the sixth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. Born in Ghana, she also holds Syrian and Irish citizenships.
Vanessa Victoria Whitburn is a British radio producer, and a former editor of The Archers.
Jill Archer is a fictional character from the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers. She has been portrayed by Patricia Greene since 1957. Writers for the show paired Jill with Phil Archer, their marriage lasting until Phil's death in 2010. Greene is one of the world's longest-serving actors in a soap opera, in any medium. In 2018, Jill was featured in 37 of the show's almost 300 episodes for the year and continues to play a prominent role in the show.