Quick Facts
Biography
Bill Thomas (born 4 August 1952) is an English actor of stage and screen. He ranks amongst the most prolific character actors of his generation with over 400 roles on stage, films, television and commercials.
Career
He was Tom Henshall in the BBC series Cutting It and Charles Quance in the classic BBC serial The House of Eliott, had the lead role the feature film Weak at Denise and Syrup (which was nominated for an Academy Award for best short life action feature in 1994). A recent return to the stage saw him playing Ironside, in An English Tragedy, a new play by Oscar-winning playwright Ronald Harwood. A generation of young adults know him as Mr Tucknott the pompous and long suffering bank manager in the classic Bodger and Badger series on BBCTV.
His previous stage work includes the lead role in Dragon in the Olivier Theatre as a member of the Royal National Theatre, a remarkable and innovative production by the accomplished director Ulz, after working together at Nottingham Playhouse. He was Arturo UI in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by David Gilmore at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and went on to lead roles in repertory for much his early career, having five children in the process with his wife, whom he met at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke in his first job out of Rose Bruford College. He was 23 and she was in the sixth form at a local school and worked as a volunteer usherette.
He has also had sculpture exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London, where he has lived for most of his life. He has a long connection with the Theatre Royal, Stratford, E15, where with Jeff Teare and Patrick Prior he pioneered a series of political dramas, developing and performing leading roles in satirical attacks on Margaret Thatchers government. The same team produced pantomimes for many years during the 1980s and 90's which set a standard in British Theatre for integrity and quality.
His recent TV work has included spells in Emmerdale and Doctors (TV series), Heartbeat (UK TV series) and two films with director Norman Hull based on true life events that revolve around the crimes of unlikely individuals, The Canoe Man and the Antiques Rogueshow, and has completed filming on Abrahams Point with Mackenzie Crook and Harriet Walter.
Some recent Film and Television work
| Year | Production | Part | watch clip: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | The Sky in Bloom | Branick Hammond - trafficking women and runs brothels | |
| 2010 | Merlin - series 3 | Cylferth - sword maker and magician | |
| 2010 | Doctors | Hairy Potter (wigmaker won't take his medicine) | [1] |
| 2010 | Prices to Pay | The Norfolk Farmer who shot a burglar | [2] |
| 2009 | The Canoe Man | Sampson - surely campsite manager | |
| 2009 | The Bill | Charles Greene (nice neighbour helps victim) | [3] |
| 2009 | Heartbeat | Richards the Station Master - attacked by dog, pigeons and a fire extinguisher | |
| 2009 | Emmerdale | Ernest Amplethorpe - impassioned lover thumps the Bishop etc. | |
| 2008 | Abrahams Point | Bob - boss of restoration company who befriends main man | |
| 2008 | Wire in the Blood | John Rowland - paranoiac neighbour of main man | |
| 2008 | Antiques Rogueshow | Fitch - the neighbour who blabs to the tabloids | |
| 2008 | Trial and Retribution VIII . | Norman Gladstone - Police bureaucrat | |
| 2007 | Messiah V | Harry Fullerton - flower seller, bereaved husband and father | |
| 2007 | Midsomer Murders | Derek Wildacre - newly widowed and grieving | |
| 2006 | New Tricks | Evans - imprisoned for 20 years for a crime he did not commit, released after a retired copper takes up his case. | |
| 2006 | City Lights | Mr Youd - employs his daughters boyfriend and pal to dig a pond, lives to regret it. | |
| 2006 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Mr Chater - Eccentric Water Diviner helps find a body. | |
| 2003-6 | Cutting It | Tom Henshall - 20+ episodes as dad to three girls who set up a hairdressers. Has affair with pornstar etc. Gross wife. | |
| 2006 | Foyles War | Willis the Air raid warden - finds a body with a knife in it in debris of bombed house |
Some Theatre Credits
- most recently played Ironside the prison Warder in a new play by Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood AN ENGLISH TRAGEDY - Watford Palace Theatre.
- Burgomeister (lead) in DRAGON in the Olivier - Royal National Theatre
- Arturo Ui in THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI - Nuffield Theatre, Southampton
- A long term association with the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, developing political satires in the 1980s and 90's which attacked the Thatcher policies