Stephen Tompkinson

Stephen Phillip Tompkinson (born 15 October 1965) is an English actor, known for his television roles as Marcus in Chancer (1990), Damien Day in Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998), Father Peter Clifford in Ballykissangel (1996–98), Trevor Purvis in Grafters (1998–1999), Danny Trevanion in Wild at Heart (2006–2013) and Alan Banks in DCI Banks (2010–2016).

Based on a 1977 play by C.P. Taylor, And a Nightingale Sang was a romantic comedy-drama adapted for television by Jack Rosenthal.

During his last year at the London School of Speech and Drama he won the 1987 Carleton Hobbs Bursary, gaining a contract as a member of the BBC's Radio Drama Company, and had roles in radio dramas.

He went on to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, alongside James Nesbitt and Rufus Sewell, and graduated in 1988.

Tompkinson's acting career began straight out of drama school.

In 1988, Tompkinson appeared with Ken Goodwin and Freddie Davies in a Channel 4 short titled Treacle, directed by Peter Chelsom.

It received a 1988 BAFTA nomination in the category of Best Short Film.

During the next few years he was cast in several single-episode parts on All at No 20, Shelley, After Henry, Casualty, Made in Heaven, and Boon.

He also played in three episodes of The Manageress (1989).

Also in 1989 he appeared in his first full-length made-for-TV movie.

He was cast in three episodes of Tales of Sherwood Forest (1989), nine episodes of Chancer (1990), and nine episodes of Minder (1991) It received the 1990 Prix Europa Special award for the film in the category "TV Fiction".

Between 1990 and 1998, Tompkinson starred in 66 episodes of the satirical comedy Drop The Dead Donkey.

He won the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.

He played the ambitious but unethical reporter Damien Day, and won the 1994 British Comedy Awards "Best TV Comedy Actor" award.

In 1994, he was Private Simon 'Spock' Matlock, a history teacher and intellectual in BBC comedy drama All Quiet on the Preston Front, written by Tim Firth and set in Lancashire.

Alistair McGowan replaced him after the first series because Tompkinson had other commitments.

That same year he was in Downwardly Mobile – a Yorkshire Television sitcom about a group of Yuppies – aired for one season but failed to make an impression and was not recommissioned.

He also starred in the films Brassed Off (1996) and Hotel Splendide (2000).

Tompkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees.

When he was about age 4, his family moved to Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire and then to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, where he grew up and attended St Bede's Roman Catholic High School in Lytham and St Mary's Sixth Form in Blackpool.

Tompkinson's first lead was as a red admiral butterfly in The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner.

From 1996 to 1998 he portrayed, in the popular Ballykissangel, the struggles of a young English Roman Catholic priest assigned as curate to a church in Ireland's 'back of beyond'.

In 1998 he starred as Jim Harper in the three-part ITV psychological thriller Oktober, about a naive English teacher at a posh school in Switzerland.

His character becomes a guinea pig in the trials of a new mind-altering drug.

Tompkinson performed his own stunts.

He says that "I grabbed this project because I'd never been asked to do anything like this before. And the chance to do stunts was one reason it was so appealing."

Also in 1998, and again in 1999, he co-starred with Robson Green in two series of Grafters, about two Geordie labourers who attempt to go into business together renovating an old London house owned by a pair of Yuppies.

Tompkinson's performance was praised by James Rampton of The Independent:

"It is Tompkinson who – despite having the less showy part – really catches the eye. In the shadow of a more successful brother and a domineering wife, he precisely captures an air of despondent, hen-pecked resignation. Like Eeyore, he seems to be pursued by his own personal raincloud. Nobody does defeated better. Tompkinson is an actor who's become a winner by playing the loser....Trevor can be added to the actor's growing gallery of characters whom viewers watch and think, 'I know that bloke.'"

Tompkinson and Ballykissangel's Dervla Kirwan worked together again in 1999 on the TV version of Tim Firth's The Flint Street Nativity.

They also co-starred in the 2001 mini-series Hereafter, which never aired in the UK but was released on DVD under the title Shades in the United States and Canada in 2012.

In 2001, he co-starred with Heartbeat star Nick Berry in the mini-series In Deep, as part of BBC1's Crime Doubles season.

The promotional material described his performance as "Tompkinson as you have never seen him before" and a career "gamble".

He agreed with that assessment: "In Deep is a very gritty drama and not the kind of thing that I'm normally associated with".

Tompkinson and Claire Skinner appeared as a couple in Series 1 of the comedy Bedtime, which aired August and September 2001.

The sitcom Mr. Charity (2001), which aired on BBC2, was panned by the critics, drew poor viewer ratings, and was axed after six episodes.

In 2002, he appeared as the character 'Ted' with co-star Dawn French in the comedy drama mini-series Ted and Alice.

In 2003, after a long delay, ITV aired the mini-series Lucky Jim.

His narrated radio documentaries include Brass Britain, which aired in 2008 and was reprised in 2010 on BBC Radio 2.

Along with Ewan Bailey, he performed a two-part radio drama titled Say What You Want to Hear (Swywth), written by Tim Wright and broadcast in 2010 on BBC Radio 4.