Speech Day is a bit of a laugh if you are not one of nature's prize-winners. But now that they've finished with school and school with them, what comes next for Ronnie, Wally and Rob?
03-26-1973
50 min
THIS
HELLA
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Bill Dean was a British actor who was born in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire. He was born Patrick Anthony Connolly, but took his stage name in honour of Everton football legend William 'Dixie' Dean. After a atring of jobs, it was his work as a Lancashire club comedian that saw him spotted by Ken Loach who gave him his breakthrough role in his TV play The Golden Vision. Famous for his flat but penetrating Scouse tones, Dean went on to star as miserable pensioner Harry Cross in the long running Channel 4 soap Brookside from its inception in 1983 to 1990. He briefly returned to the series in 1999 for three episodes, when his character re-appeared in Brookside Close suffering from Alzheimer's disease and wrongly believing that he still lived there. The same character was the inspiration behind the 1980s group 'Jegsy Dodd and the sons of Harry Cross' who hailed from the Wirral and Dean himself appeared in the video of the Liverpudlian band The Farm's Groovy Train as Cross, who was a former train driver. He did of a heart attack aged 78 in 2000.
Brian Glover was an English character actor, writer and wrestler. Glover was a professional wrestler (as 'Leon Arras the Man From Paris'), teacher, and finally a film, television and stage actor, and the voice of Tetley Tea. He was married to writer Tara Prem from 1954 until his death in 1997.
From starting in folk clubs as a child bride, and then writing & performing at the Octagon theatre in Bolton, the career has always combined singing and acting. From TV programmes and films such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Phoenix Nights, Dinnerladies, Alan Bennett films, Brassed Off, My Son The Fanatic & Steve Coogan’s Coogan’s Run, to the many radio plays and programmes presented or guested upon, there has throughout been a steady stream of LPs and CDs - eighteen to date, the early ones all now remastered to CD.
Paul is a long established and much respected British actor and voiceover artist.
Born in Denby Dale, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 25th November 1944 he grew up beside a dairy farm. His father, Harold, was involved with local amateur dramatic productions, as were the rest of his family. He went to Penistone Grammar School, then the Northern Counties College of Education in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he received an Associate of the Drama Board (ADB) in Drama. He taught English and Drama in Walthamstow, before he joined the Leeds Playhouse Theatre-in-education Company in 1971.
In 1976, Paul won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a New Play for his role in John Wilson's For King and Country.
With many and varied roles to follow, Paul soon established himself as one of the UK's leading stage, film, television and radio actors.
In 2011-2015 Paul gained worldwide recognition appearing in 16 episodes of the hugely popular television series Downton Abbey playing the popular role of farmer Mr Mason.
Paul is married to the actress Natasha Pyne. They married in 1972, after both performing in a Leeds Playhouse production of Frank Wedekind's Lulu, adapted by Peter Barnes, directed by Bill Hays in 1971.
Elizabeth 'Liz' Dawn MBE was an actress most famous for her role as Vera Duckworth in long running soap Coronation Street. She played Vera for over thirty years from 1976 to 2008, before retiring from acting due to ill health. She died in September, 2017.