Lancashire

Mike Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further... at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet , the comedy-drama Career Girls , the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy , and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing . His most notable works are arguably Naked for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning Palme d'Or winner Secrets & Lies and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake . His films and stage plays, according to the critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period.
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Jonas Armstrong is an Irish-born English actor best known for his appearances on television in the United Kingdom, where he played the title role in... the BBC One drama series Robin Hood. Armstrong was born in Dublin to Irish parents , and raised in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2003. After graduating Armstrong appeared in Quartermaine's Terms at the Royal Theatre in Northampton as Derek Meadle. And in March 2004 he played Henry in The Skin of Our Teeth at the Young Vic theatre in the London Borough of Lambeth. In 2004 he appeared in six episodes of the fourth series of the British television comedy-drama, Teachers on Channel 4, as Anthony Millington. In January 2005 he appeared as Richard in Rutherford & Son at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. Later in 2005 he appeared again on Channel 4 in the crime drama series The Ghost Squad as Pete Maitland. In December 2006 he starred in the two-part crime drama Losing Gemma on ITV. His first major television role came in October 2006 when he played Robin of Locksley, in the BBC's 2006 series based on Robin Hood.
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Jacqueline "Jackie" Burroughs was an English-born Canadian actress. Born in Lancashire, England, Burroughs acted in live theatre at Ontario's... Stratford Festival. Her film credits included The Dead Zone , The Grey Fox , and a voice-over stint in the legendary animated anthology Heavy Metal , while her TV-series résumé includes the roles of Mrs. Amelia Evans in Anne of Green Gables and Hetty King in Road to Avonlea . In 1987, Jackie Burroughs produced, directed, co-wrote, and starred in A Winter Tan, a film based on the letters of Maryse Holder, published in 1979 as the book Give Sorrow Words – Maryse Holder's Letters from Mexico. She won a Genie award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for the film. She won several Genies and Geminis during her career. Her first award was the 1969 Canadian Film Award for best actress, for starring in the non-feature short film Duclima. Burroughs played the voice of The Spirit in 1985's The Care Bears Movie. She also played teacher Nancy Galik in The Undergrads opposite Art Carney.
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Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst... in Last of the Summer Wine. His lugubrious world-weary face was a staple of British television for forty years. Though born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, he was brought up in Devon and Hertfordshire and attended Hertford Grammar School. He trained as an actor at RADA. He had a small part in the horror film Night of the Demon and early television roles included the series The Love of Mike and supporting Tony Hancock in episodes of his ATV series in 1963. He also played Detective Superintendent Halcro in a series of two-part thrillers about undercover Scotland Yard officers, The Men from Room Thirteen . He had minor roles in films such as Life for Ruth , The Bargee , The Jokers and Carry On Doctor , and on television in Room at the Bottom as Mr Salisbury. His first major television success was in 1970 as refuse depot manager "Bloody Delilah" in the ITV sitcom The Dustbinmen.
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Patricia "Pat" Frederica Phoenix was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role of Elsie... Tanner in Coronation Street. In her later life she was referred to as Patricia Pilkington, which was her stepfather's surname. Born in Ireland to Anna Maria Josephine Noonan and Tom Manfield, but moved to Manchester before she reached 6 months old. Her mother later left Manfield when she found out that her marriage was a sham. Tom Manfield was a bigamist. She later married Richard Pilkington. Phoenix attended Fallowfield Central School, Manchester. As a child she nursed early theatrical ambitions, appearing regularly on the radio in Children's Hour at the age of 11, after having submitted a monologue. After leaving school, she worked as a filing clerk for the gas department of Manchester Corporation, performing in amateur dramatics in her spare time. She joined the Arts Theatre, Manchester, and other Northern repertory companies.
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David Macaulay is an author and illustrator. Now a resident of Norwich, Vermont, United States, he is an alumnus and faculty member at the Rhode... Island School of Design. Born in Lancashire, UK, Macaulay moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey at the age of eleven. He began drawing while in the United States. After graduating from high school in Cumberland, Rhode Island in 1964, he enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design , from which he received a bachelor's degree in architecture. He spent his fifth year at RISD in the European Honors Program, studying in Rome, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Macaulay's books have sold more than two million copies in the United States, been translated into a dozen languages, and been widely praised. Time magazine said of his work, "What [Macaulay] draws, he draws better than any other pen-and-ink illustrator in the world".
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Michael Eric Hurst, ONZM is a New Zealand actor, director and writer, mostly on stage and television. He is probably best known internationally for... playing Iolaus in the television programs Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and companion series Xena: Warrior Princess. Most recently, he is known for his role in directing the popular Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Hurst was born in Lancashire, England, the eldest of three brothers. When he was seven his family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. He enrolled at Papanui High School, then University of Canterbury, but for only one year. He married New Zealand actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand in 1988. They have two sons: Jack Louis Ward Hurst, born in 1997, and Cameron Lane Ward Hurst, born in 1999. In 1984, Hurst won the lead role of David Blyth's Death Warmed Up, New Zealand's first splatter movie. The plot saw Hurst's character weathering institutionalisation, sundry wackos, and a motorcycle chase in the tunnels below Waiheke Island. The film won the grand prize at a fantasy film festival in Paris.
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Philip Bretherton is an English actor best known for his role as Alistair Deacon in the British television series As Time Goes By. Bretherton was... born in Preston, Lancashire and studied English and drama at the University of Manchester, where he decided to become an actor. Bretherton made a brief appearance as "Rod" in Coronation Street in 1988. He then returned as "Robert Weston" in 1991, and again as "Ian Davenport" in 2004. Bretherton appeared in Casualty as Andrew Bower , Footballer's Wives as Stefan Hauser, New Tricks as Doug Standeven. He also appeared in an episode of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, "The Problem of Thor Bridge" in 1990 as Mr. Joyce Cummings Q.C. He has appeared in Series 1 of Murder in Suburbia, as Phillip Whitmore. He is also active in theatre, recently performing in a nationally acclaimed production of Pygmalion, as Henry Higgins, in Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, Flintshire.
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