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ITV Playhouse

1967

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

Karen Mayo-Chandler

Slim, lovely and sultry brunette British beauty Karen Mayo-Chandler brought a winning blend of sexiness and classiness to a handful of enjoyably lowbrow exploitation features made in the 80s and 90s. Karen was born on April 18, 1958 in Sutton, Surrey, England. Slender and elegant, with blue eyes and brown hair, Karen started out as a model in Europe and then went to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. She had a small part as a receptionist in the smash hit blockbuster "Beverly Hills Cop." Mayo-Chandler's most memorable movie roles include enticing psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Gotbottom in the amusing "Hamburger ... The Motion Picture," luscious stripper Cassandra in "Stripped to Kill II: Live Girls," and foxy model Barbara in the nifty murder mystery slasher thriller "Out of the Dark." Karen worked twice for prolific B-flick director Jim Wynorski: she's at her spirited best as Diana Farrow in the delightfully outrageous "Hard to Die" and has a brief pre-credits cameo in "976-Evil II." Mayo-Chandler made guest appearances on the TV shows "ITV Playhouse," "Strangers," and "Bring 'Em Back Alive." She had a recurring role on the popular daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless." She was a onetime girlfriend of Jack Nicholson and continued to act in films up until the late 90s. Karen Mayo-Chandler died at the tragically young age of 48 from breast cancer on July 11, 2006. - IMDb mini biography by: woodyanders

Gordon Flemyng

Gordon William Flemyng (7 March 1934 – 12 July 1995) was a Scottish television and film director. He was also a writer and producer. He directed six theatrical features, several television films and numerous episodes of television series, some of which he also wrote and produced. Flemyng directed episodes of various British TV series, including The Younger Generation, The Saint, The Avengers, The Baron, Crown Court, ITV Playhouse, Target, Screenplay, Take My Wife, Cribb, The Brack Report, One Summer, Wish Me Luck, The Bill, Emmerdale Farm, Bergerac, Taggart, Peak Practice, Lovejoy, Minder and Ellington (also produced). Flemyng directed two entries in Edgar Wallace Mysteries (US: The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre) series of second features and the two Dalek feature films of the 1960s, Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). Two episodes of The Baron that he directed were put together as a 1966 feature film entitled Mystery Island and released in some markets. Flemyng directed a Hollywood film with an all-star cast, The Split, released in 1968, a crime drama with Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine and Gene Hackman, based on a novel by Donald E. Westlake. He also directed the British war film The Last Grenade (1970). His other credits include Saki (miniseries); Härte 10 (West German miniseries); Philby, Burgess and Maclean (TV); Flight Into Hell; Cloud Waltzing (TV), Marty Abroad (1971 - TV, produced only) and Confessional (1989 - TV, also produced).

David Scase

David Scase (21 September 1919 – 27 February 2003) was a British theatre director and actor. Born at Fulham, London, as the son of a bricklayer, his first job was in a bicycle factory in the mid-1930s. He joined the Merchant Navy on the outbreak of World War II in 1939, but by the end of the war was working as a BBC sound engineer. He then joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Manchester and served as a stage manager, before moving to directing. He ran the Manchester Library Theatre, which he made into one of the most prestigious repertory theatres in the country, from the late 1950s until the 1970s. He gave actors such as Patrick Stewart, Martin Jarvis, and many other household names, their first jobs. Following minor television roles between 1948 and 1965, he began to act on a regular basis during the 1970s, beginning with an appearance in a 1972 episode of Holly. Minor roles in shows including The Nearly Man, ITV Playhouse, Flambards and Fallen Hero followed later on in the decade. In 1984, in his 65th year, he landed his first regular television role, in How We Used to Live, with five appearances as George Holyrood. From 1984 to 1987, he appeared as Hilda Ogden's friend Dr Lowther in Coronation Street. In 1989, he appeared in two episodes of Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again. Scase retired from acting in 1992, having voiced the Duke in Truckers (stop motion animation adaptation of the Terry Pratchett book) early in the year, and finally appearing as an Art Gallery Owner in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes: The Master Blackmailer He died in February 2003, at the age of 83

Laurence Hardy

Laurence Hardy was born on June 26, 1911 in Bath, Somerset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Black Arrow (1958), The Avengers (1961) and ITV Television Playhouse (1955). He was married to Nellie Forster. He died on March 16, 1982 in London, England, UK.

Andrea Davy

Andrea Davy (Addie) is an Actor. Andrea trained at LAMDA. Theatre credits include: Nine Night (Leeds Playhouse / Nottingham Playhouse), Home Girl (Derby Theatre), Treasure Island (Birmingham Rep), All My Sons (Manchester Royal Exchange & UK Tour), Death of a Salesman (Leicester Haymarket), The Railway Children, The Front Room, Crush, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Lizzie Play (UK Tour), Mini Momentum Festival (Lakeside Arts Centre), Moving Out: The Reporter (Sandfield Theatre); Mmapula (South Africa State Theatre); Dragon Breath (Waverly Studio), The Railway Children, Rumpelstiltskin (Nottingham Playhouse), An Ideal Husband (Leicester Haymarket), Cinderella (Polka Theatre), Passionate Women (Derby Playhouse), Peacemaker (Roundabout Theatre). Television includes: Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Lawless, Wilmot, Barbara (ITV) Patrick Melrose (Sky / Showtime), Doctors, Kiss Me Kate (BBC). Film includes: The Violators.

Laura Howard

Cast · Known for Midsomer Murders

British actress Laura Howard has worked extensively on stage and screen since she was in her mid teens, most notably as the longstanding regular character Cully Barnaby in ITV's Midsomer Murders. She has appeared in recurring roles in Soldier Soldier (Central Television) and Young Dracula (CBBC), leading roles in Jack Rosenthal Screen One films (BBC) and short films for Brag Productions and RSA Films, as well as numerous guest appearances for the BBC and ITV. Laura's stage credits include productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Watford Palace and Liverpool Playhouse, as well as premiers of new writing at Theatre Royal Stratford East and HighTide Festival. She has also toured the UK in shows for The English Touring Theatre, Northern Stage, Touring Consortium and for Sir Alan Ayckbourn and the SJT.

Raymond Huntley

Cast · Known for Crown Court

Horace Raymond Huntley (23 April 1904 – 15 June 1990) was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs as the pragmatic family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon, and other television shows, such as the Wodehouse Playhouse, ('Romance at Droitwich Spa'), in 1975. Born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire (now a suburb of Birmingham) in 1904, Huntley made his stage debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 1 April 1922, in A Woman Killed with Kindness. His London debut followed at the Court Theatre on 22 February 1924, in As Far as Thought can Reach. He subsequently inherited the role of Count Dracula from Edmund Blake in Hamilton Deane's touring adaptation of Dracula, which arrived at London's Little Theatre on 14 February 1927, subsequently transferring to the larger Duke of York's Theatre. Later that year he was offered the chance to reprise the role on Broadway (in a script streamlined by John L. Balderston); when he declined, the part was taken by Bela Lugosi instead. Huntley did, however, appear in a US touring production of the Deane/Balderston play, covering the east coast and midwest, from 1928-30. "I have always considered the role of Count Dracula to have been an indiscretion of my youth" he recalled in 1989. After Dracula, he made his Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on 23 February 1931, in The Venetian Glass Nephew. On returning to the UK, his many West End appearances included The Farmer's Wife (Queen's Theatre 1932), Cornelius (Duchess Theatre 1935), Bees on the Boat Deck (Lyric Theatre 1936) Time and the Conways (Duchess Theatre 1937), When We Are Married (St Martin's Theatre 1940), Rebecca (Queen's Theatre 1940; Strand Theatre 1942), They Came to a City (Globe Theatre 1943), The Late Edwina Black (Ambassadors Theatre 1948), And This Was Odd (Criterion Theatre 1951), Double Image (Savoy Theatre 1956), Any Other Business (Westminster Theatre 1958), Caught Napping (Piccadilly Theatre 1959), Difference of Opinion (Garrick Theatre 1963), An Ideal Husband (Garrick Theatre 1966), Getting Married (Strand Theatre 1967), Soldiers (New Theatre 1968) and Separate Tables (Apollo Theatre 1977). He also starred opposite Flora Robson in the Broadway production of Black Chiffon (48th Street Theatre 1950). Often cast as a supercilious bureaucrat or other authority figure, Huntley was also a staple figure in British films, his many appearances including The Way Ahead, I See a Dark Stranger, Passport to Pimlico and The Dam Busters. In his later years, he became well-known on television as Sir Geoffrey Dillon, the family solicitor to the Bellamys in LWT's popular 1970s drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. Huntley died in Westminster Hospital, London in 1990. In his obituary, the New York Times wrote, "During his long career the actor played judges, bank managers, churchmen, bureaucrats and other figures of authority. He could play them straight if necessary, but in comedy his natural dryness of delivery was exaggerated to the point where the character he was playing invited mockery as a pompous humbug." Source: Article "Raymond Huntley" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Simon Bubb

Simon Bubb is an Actor and Voice Artist. Simon’s recent screen credits include a guest starring role of Peter in Channel 5’s popular crime series, ‘The Madame Blanc Mysteries’ and series 5 of ITV’s popular crime drama ‘Unforgotten’. He also starred as Major Rittner in the stageplay, Operation Epsilon at the Southwark Playhouse to rave reviews. Other notable TV credits include ‘Ghosts’, ‘Trying’, ‘Humans’ and ‘W1A’, and a the feature film ‘Possum’. As well as his work on screen, Simon has a rich stage history, having performed in shows at some of the UK’s most venues including The National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, RSC, Sheffield Crucible and more. Simon will next be seen in a popular returning mystery series for Netflix.

Steven O'Neill

Steven O’Neill trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His TV credits include Neil Pointon in Holby City (BBC), Alec Fallon in Doctors (BBC), The Crown (Netflix), Luther (BBC), Friends and Crocodiles, Sensitive Skin, Fear of Fanny, Olivier Twist, Garrow’s Law and M.I. High, Eastenders, Luther and Dark Money (all for the BBC), The Frankenstein Chronicles (ITV) and The Enfield Haunting for (Eleven Film Ltd/BSkyB). Some of Steven’s theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Hamlet and Twelfth Night with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, David Copperfield at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Rat Trap at Finborough Theatre, Indian Ink at Salisbury Playhouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Zurich Opera House, Hound of the Baskervilles with Oldham Coliseum, Two Little Boys at Nottingham Lakeside Theatre and Theatre Renegade at Bush Theatre.

Nadia Albina

Nadia trained at LAMDA. Most recently she played Lady Katherine in EMILIA in the West End and has worked for The National (Macbeth), RSC ( The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hecuba), Shakespeare’s Globe (Emilia, Othello, Macbeth), Chichester (Quiz) , Nottingham Playhouse (The Madness of George III) as well as Secret Theatre at The Lyric Hammersmith and The Royal Court and Manchester International Festival. Her Television credits include, Innocent, Marcella, Trauma for ITV, Home, The Year of the Rabbit for Channel 4, Years and Years, Whites and Come Fly with Me for BBC and The One for Netflix. She is also Vice Chair of The Act For Change Project.

Nigel Boyle

Cast · Known for The Blame

Nigel is an actor of Irish descent who grew up in Birmingham. He is best known for playing series regular Superintendent Ian Buckells in the multi award winning police drama “Line of Duty” for BBC. Nigel next plays leading reg Jim in new CBBC series High Hoops, opposite Peep Show’s Robert Webb and Isy Suttie. Further TV credits include: Three Little Birds (Tiger Aspect/ITV), Small Axe (BBC/Amazon), Peaky Blinders (Tiger Aspect), The End Of the F**king World (Netflix), Temple (Sky One) Film credits include: Alleycats (Fyzz Facility Film Six), Une Rencontre (Poisson Rouge Pictures), Young High and Dead (Rumpunch Productions), The Best Years (Empire Productions). Theatre credits include: Going For Gold (Park Theatre), How Love is Spelt (Southwark Playhouse), A Dybbuk (Crescent Theatre), Circus Land (New Leicester Square Theatre), Sweet Love Remembered (Shakespeare’s Globe).

Amy Nuttall

Cast · Known for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Amy Abigail Nuttall is an English actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Chloe Atkinson in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale (2000–2005), housemaid Ethel Parks in the ITV/PBS period drama Downton Abbey (2011–2012), and "Little" Jane Butterfield in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Nuttall was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. She was educated at Bury Grammar School for Girls and trained at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. She performed with the National Youth Music Theatre, notably playing the lead role of Princess Ismene in Aurelius at the Tyne Opera House, Newcastle and the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in August 1997. Nuttall is credited as the youngest actress to ever understudy and play the lead role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (at age 17) (National Tour), she has sung at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Old Trafford and won an edition of Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Sarah Brightman. Shortly before leaving Emmerdale, Nuttall appeared in Notes from New York at the Trafalgar Studios opposite Jon Lee and Julie Atherton. In 2005, she released her debut album as a classical vocalist, Best Days, on EMI Classics and filmed music videos for her tracks "Best Days", "No Greater Gift" and a version of "Scarborough Fair", which was heavily requested on Classic FM TV. Best Days peaked at number four in the UK classical chart and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2006 Classic BRIT Awards. In the same year, Nuttall took part in the reality TV programme Celebrity Shark Bait, which also featured Richard E. Grant and Ruby Wax and appeared in Celebrate Oliver, a musical special for BBC1. In the autumn of 2005, Nuttall toured the UK extensively as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady to critical acclaim. She shared the role with Lisa O'Hare on the National Tour due to other commitments with her first album. The tour started on 5 October 2005 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester and ended on 12 August 2006 at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. In January 2007, Nuttall performed on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night with an 80-piece live orchestra and in May 2007, she joined the cast of the stage revival of Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre opposite Patricia Hodge, Mark Rylance and Roger Allam. On 2 October 2007, Nuttall replaced Kim Medcalf in the London production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre, transferring directly from her role in Boeing-Boeing. In April 2008, Nuttall's initial six-month contract was extended until the production's closure on 21 June. Nuttall appeared in Hotel Babylon in 2009 as Melanie Hughes, the new hotel receptionist. In June and July 2010, Nuttall played one of the lead roles in the revival of the hit musical The Hired Man at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Later that year, she returned to the Octagon Theatre, Bolton to play Stella Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire. She shared the role of the Lady of the Lake in the UK tour of Spamalot, which began on 18 October 2010 at the Edinburgh Playhouse. From September 2011, Nuttall began appearing in the second series of Downton Abbey, appearing as the new maid, Ethel.

Victoria Scarborough

A classical actor, I trained at RADA between the years 1986-89; The Royal National Theatre (London), Hampstead Theatre (London), The Royal Exchange (Manchester), Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Rep, The Glasgow Citz, Leeds Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, New Victoria Theatre, The New Vic (London), were some of the theatres I regularly performed at alternating with productions for the BBC, and mainstream ITV channels and independent film. Favourite plays and roles have been …in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Ophelia), Othello, (Desdemona), Sophocles Electra as ‘Electra’, The Winters Tale (Hermione), Middleton’s Women Beware Women (Bianca), and Venice Preserved (Aqualina), Molière’s, The Hypochondriac (Toinette), La Ronda (all female parts), Noel Coward’s, Gilda (Design For Living) and Sybil in Private Lives; The Rivals (Lydia Languish), Love for Love, and (Rosina), in The Barber of Seville (Rosina). Favourite screen roles have been, Betty Mcfarll in Catherine Cookson's, The Cinder Path, Ruth Bannerman in Russel T Davies series The Grand (second series) and Detective Kate Miskin in a BBC adaptation of a PD James novel - Death In Holy Orders.

Zak Ford-Williams

Zak was born near Manchester, England in 1999. Starting out as a member of the Summerseat Players Youth Theatre, Zak then became a member of the Manchester Royal Exchange Young Company for two years, before attending the Manchester School of Theatre, graduating in 2020. Zak's professional theatre work includes playing Joseph Merrick in the critically acclaimed touring production of The Real and Imaginary History of the Elephant Man (2023) and various roles in Mark Gatiss' adaptation of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (2022) at the Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace. Zak's audio work includes the BBC Radio dramas Letter to Louis and Tinsel Girl, and Zak is the voice of the Thimble series of children's audio books. Zak's on-screen work include titles produced for BBC Studios, Paramount, Netflix, ITV, Sky Drama, Channel 4 and Channel 5, including the BAFTA winning short comedy Mobility (2023), Bridgerton (2020), Better (2023) and The Hardacres (2024) (2024). Zak has cerebral palsy and is an ambulant wheelchair user.

Alice Barclay

Over the past 25 years Alice has worked as an actor for numerous theatres & companies including the RSC, the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, the Orange Tree, Salisbury Playhouse, the Newbury Watermill, Finborough, Trestle, Battersea Arts Centre, Eastern Angles, Theatre West, Forest Forge, Kilter, Roustabout & Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. She has often been part of developing new writing or new ways of performing Classical work, most recently at the Bristol Old Vic for Headlong & in the past at the NT studio, the RSC, Theatre West, Soho Theatre & Exeter Bikeshed amongst others. She was an original cast member & part of the R&D process for War Horse (NT & West End) & The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic & West End). She recently appeared in the ITV dramas A Spy Among Friends & The Long Call; other TV work includes Emmerdale, Doctors & Casualty. Alice is a founding member of Live Canon, a live poetry theatre company who she regularly works with in London & across the UK. She has recorded several audio CDs for Live Canon as well as nearly 20 audio books for the Calibre Audio Library.

Maddy Hill

Maddy trained at Rose Bruford College. She played the hugely popular Nancy Carter in EastEnders for three years, for which she won Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards 2015 and Best Newcomer at the British Soap Awards 2014, as well as being nominated for Best Newcomer at the TV Choice Awards 2014. She reprised her much-loved role in 2021-22. She is currently filming a major new series for ITV. In 2021 Maddy featured in two acclaimed short films, Enjoy by Saul Abraham, and Run by Emma Miranda Moore. She recently completed shooting on Santiago in Portugal. Maddy’s stage credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Southwark Playhouse and the title role in Matthew Dunster’s Imogen at Shakespeare’s Globe. She played Curley’s Wife in the Birmingham Rep/Leeds Playhouse 2023 production and tour of Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men, directed by Iqbal Khan.

Laura Pyper

Laura Pyper is a Northern Irish actress, known for portraying Ella Dee in the second season of Hex, Jane Fairfax in Emma and Lexine Murdoch in the video game Dead Space: Extraction. She also played Lesley Howell in The Secret on ITV, which was first broadcast in April and May 2016. Born in Magherafelt, Northern Ireland, Pyper has two brothers and two sisters. She attended Rainey Endowed School and later studied English and Drama at Trinity College, Dublin. Pyper made her film debut playing Lin in Reign of Fire, a role she won while still studying. She has also appeared in the Irish film Headrush, playing Vicky Nobel. On television, Pyper played Ella Dee in the second season of the Sky One supernatural drama Hex, and Jane Fairfax in the 2009 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. She has also guest starred in episodes of Demons, Doctors, Silent Witness, The Bill and Bachelors Walk. Pyper has also worked as a voice actor in the video game Dead Space: Extraction, playing the character of Lexine Murdoch. Pyper's theatre credits include Don Juan in Soho at the Donmar Warehouse and Blackwater Angel at the Finborough Theatre. In 2009 she played Cressida in the first full-scale Shakespeare's Globe production of Troilus and Cressida. In 2010 she played Lily Cahill in the revival of Punk Rock. She played Laurel in Douglas Hodge's production of Torch Song Trilogy at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012, Mrs Manningham in Gas Light at Salisbury Playhouse in 2014 and Beatrice in A View from the Bridge at York Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate in 2019.

Sophia Carr-Gomm

Sophia Carr-Gomm has a diverse background in the film and TV industry, working as a director, writer, producer, and casting director. Initially trained as an actor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she appeared in TV series such as Shetland (BBC), Mr. Selfridge (ITV), and World’s End (BBC), as well as in theatre productions like The Cardinal at Southwark Playhouse and King Lear at The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. In 2018, Sophia transitioned into directing, while also working in feature film script development, reading, and pre-production with Midsummer Films. Her debut short, The Wider Sun, premiered at BFI Southbank and won Best Director at the Oslo Film Festival. Notable follow-up films include Nobody’s Darling and Mine, which screened at BAFTA-qualifying festivals such as the London Short Film Festival, Cambridge Film Festival, and Raindance. In 2021, she was invited to judge at London Film Week, and that same year, she was featured in Pitch Fanzine’s “New Talent to Watch,” with Mine earning a Shiny Award. From 2022 to 2024, Sophia worked as sole casting assistant on TV projects The Diplomat (Alibi), Six Four (ITV), Payback (ITV), Molly & Mack (CBBC), and Shetland (BBC). She served as casting director for the short films Sleep Hunger (Stormjar) and We Have Till Dawn (NFTS Grad film), and in 2024, she was the local casting director for the feature film I Swear, directed by Kirk Jones and produced by Tempo Productions. She also cast the Short Circuit-funded (BFI & Screen Scotland) film This Desert Will Rust Your Bones. She regularly collaborates with MTP and cast coordinates and street casts for commercials. Sophia’s writing includes the libretto for Ben Rowarth’s music piece The Fall, set to premiere in 2025. She produced the documentary The Sound of the Wind for the Scottish Documentary Institute, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2023. Additionally, her viral campaign for the charity Pregnant Then Screwed gained significant attention on Instagram. Currently, Sophia continues to work across multiple roles in the industry, including directing, writing and casting. She lectures in Acting for Camera and Casting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and teaches Directing Narrative Filmmaking on the Film & Television course at Edinburgh University. She regularly participates in Q&As and hosts workshops on filmmaking, casting and acting for students. Her latest project, Return, funded by the Genesis Foundation, is being submitted to film festivals.

Steven Blakeley

Cast · Known for Heartbeat

Steven Blakeley (born 26 February 1982) is a British actor. He is best known for his role as PC Geoff Younger in the British police drama Heartbeat, guest roles in various other television programmes and multiple theatre roles. Steven Blakeley was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1982 and was brought up in the Derbyshire mining town of Bolsover. He attended the Bolsover School, and was initially interested in pursuing a medical career, before turning his attentions to performing. Blakeley started his career as a member of the Derby Playhouse Community and Youth Theatre companies, before going on to work professionally at Derby Playhouse. He trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and at the Athanor Academy in Germany. His theatre credits include national tours of Peter Shaffer's The Private Ear and The Public Eye, Dry Rot and Funny Peculiar, Diary of a Nobody at the Royal and Derngate, Boeing-Boeing, Selling the Sizzle, Bare Words, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Pan, The Hypochondriac, Soap and Cold Turkey. As well as appearing in four series of ITV's Heartbeat, he has made guest appearances in ITV's Emmerdale, Doctors and Holby City (the latter two both for the BBC). Blakeley has performed in radio plays for the BBC, as well as providing narration for animation films and poetry recordings. In 2006, he was a nominee in the category of Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards, and in 2016 a nominee in the category of Best Supporting Male Performer at the Off West End Awards for his portrayal of Comrade Staggles in J. B. Priestley's The Roundabout at the Park Theatre, London. He played the same role when the production transferred to New York in 2017. Blakeley played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Verges in Much Ado About Nothing with the British Shakespeare Company on their 2009 tour of the United Kingdom, Dublin, Norway and Prague. Blakeley has also worked as a writer and theatre director. Since 2009, he has appeared in, written and directed several pantomimes at the Theatre Royal Windsor, playing the pantomime dame in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin and Jack and the Beanstalk. In 2010, he was acting at Derby Theatre. Blakeley appeared in ITV's Coronation Street and the BBC's Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley in 2018. In 2020, he appeared in the All Creatures Great and Small episode "All's Fair" as Mr. Foyle. Blakeley is also now a civil celebrant and funeral director working for A.Wass in Mansfield.

Peter Ellis

Peter Ellis (born 30 May 1936) is an English actor. Ellis has worked extensively in theatre and television both as an actor and director. He spent four seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as spending five years at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and three years with the Old Vic Company which included playing Benvolio in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1 and later Rosencrantz in a world tour of Hamlet starring Derek Jacobi. He also played Guildenstern in Hamlet on the site of the new Globe Theatre. In the West End he appeared in The Tulip Tree and in Ray Cooney's Funny Money. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow in the long running ITV drama The Bill. Has also appeared as a semi-regular in Emmerdale Farm and Coronation Street. Other series include Sam Lyttons Diary, Edward and Mrs Simpson, The XYY Man, Nolan, The Les Dawson Show, Victoria Wood's play Talent for Granada and Acorn Antiques for BBC TV. He appeared in the David Mercer television play In Two Minds (1967), a work which was directed by Ken Loach. Ellis also appeared as a Jury Foreman in Granada Television’s daytime legal drama series Crown Court, the case of Regina v Vennings & Vennings. In 1981 Ellis appeared as a police officer in Trafalgar Square in the horror film An American Werewolf in London. In 1983, he appeared in the play Trafford Tanzi, starring Toyah Willcox, at the Mermaid Theatre in London. Ellis was a regular cast member of The Bill from the first series in 1984 until 2000 when he left the series. His last episode was written by his son Hugh Ellis who went on to write the award-winning feature Summer starring Robert Carlyle. However he did return to The Bill in 2002 for a guest appearance. He also appeared in Hugh's film The Mortician's Tea Party playing Jed. Ellis played the title role in The Mikado, Carl Rosa's opera tour of Australia. Ellis played Mr Bennet opposite Susan Hampshire in Bath Theatre tour of Pride and Prejudice, Sorin in the Bristol Old Vic production of The Seagull. More recently Ellis directed his wife Anita Parry in the comedy drama What Would Helen Mirren Do? for the Edinburgh Festival 2010. In 2011 he played Adam/Corin in Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Ellis has also appeared in Hindle Wakes at the Finbourgh Theatre In 2018, Ellis starred in For King & Country at the Southwark Playhouse.

Joseph Prowen

Joseph Prowen is an actor and multi-instumentalist based in London. He works in theatre, television and film. Joseph Prowen trained as an actor at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Upon graduating, he won the Highly Commended Award at the Spotlight Prize with this speech from Chatroom by Enda Walsh.​ Theatre credits includes: A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scoot Theatre, Tour), Trial by Laughter (Watermill & UK Tour); Bury the Hatchet, Boris III (Vaults Festival); A View From Islington North (Arts Theatre/Out of Joint); Single Spies (Chichester Festival Theatre/Birmingham Rep/UK tour); Jefferson’s Garden, Dick Whittington (Watford Palace Theatre); Teddy (Southwark Playhouse); An Ideal Husband (Chichester Festival Theatre) plus rehearsed readings and workshops at Watford Palace Theatre, The Print Rooms and Shakespeare’s Globe. Television credits includes: Father Brown, Decline and Fall, And Then There Were None, Casualty (BBC), Midsomer Murders (ITV). Film credits includes: Chevalier (Searchlight Pictures); Small Talk (Short)

Simon Coury

Simon taught English in Kent and China before training as an actor. He has been living and working in Ireland for the last thirteen years. Theatre work includes: Pride and Prejudice, An Ideal Husband, The Vortex (Gate Theatre); A Doll’s House, Hamlet, (Second Age); The Picture of Dorian Grey (Winterland); King Lear (C Company); Peter Pan (Pavillion Theatre); Macbeth, Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, A Doll’s House, The Cherry Orchard (Salisbury Playhouse); Outward Bound, Kind Hearts and Coronets (Watford Palace); Wild Honey, Betrayal (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Murder in the Cathedral, Moby Dick, The Tempest (RSC). Film and Television work includes: The Professor and the Madman (Christchurch Prods); The Witness (WFM Film and TV); 37 Days, Line of Duty II, Wodehouse in Exile, Murphy’s Law, Inspector George Gently, Eastenders, Our Friends in the North (BBC); Foyles War VIII (ITV); Vikings (VK Prods); The Tudors III (HS Prods); The Clinic (RTE); Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat (YTV).

Ishia Bennison

Ishia Bennison is a British actress, best known for her television appearances, although she is also a veteran stage actress. Bennison is originally from Hull in Yorkshire. One of her earliest roles was playing a nurse in the 1980 Charlton Heston film, The Awakening. She also had roles in the television drama The Chinese Detective (1981) and she played Ruth Lieberman in the BBC drama Kessler (1981). Other notable television credits include Bergerac (1981) and playing Ursula in a BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (1984). In 1985 Bennison became a household name whilst playing Guizin Osman, the long-suffering wife of the womanising Turkish Cypriot, Mehmet (Haluk Bilginer), in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She remained in the role until 1989. Bennison has "mixed memories" about her role in EastEnders, commenting in 2003: "it was the start of the soap and the fame was very instant for everybody. You're in everybody's front room and everyone feels they own a bit of you. I'll never forget having to sign people's sickbags on the hovercraft to France. My daughter wouldn't walk down the street with me at the time. She would stay 10 paces behind. I still get recognised from EastEnders. I can't believe it." Other television credits include The Storyteller (1988); The Bill (1988); playing Denise Skidmore in the popular ITV drama At Home with the Braithwaites (2000); Mrs. Mawdsley in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street (2000); Holby City (2000); playing Cath Foxton in Burnside, the spin-off to The Bill (2000, 2001); Casualty (2006) and Hollyoaks: In the City. In 2004 she starred in the Doctor Who audio series Dalek Empire III and in January 2007 she joined the cast of the successful ITV soap opera, Emmerdale, playing Jackie Stiles — mother of vet receptionist Jo Stiles. She also played the character of 'Doris' in two episodes of the CBBC series, Little Howard's Big Question. She played Joyce, a civilian employee at the police station, in the 2014 crime drama Happy Valley. Bennison has had numerous roles on stage, including Mistress Overdone in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production Measure For Measure, which played at the Theatre Royal in 2003. She also appeared at the Playhouse as the Queen in The Tragedy of Cymbeline (2003). Bennison's previous Shakespearean roles have been with the company Northern Broadsides, which "specialises in performing classical plays in north country accents"Seen at Chesterfield's Pomegranate Theatre when she toured with Bill Simpson (Dr. Finlay in TV's Dr. Finlay's Casebook) in 'Educating Rita' - he was the known name (to me) and she stole the show.