Quick Facts
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Craig Cash (born 11 September 1960) is an English comedian, actor, director and BAFTA award-winning writer and producer. His best known work is in the television shows The Royle Family, The Fast Show, The Mrs Merton Show, Early Doors, Sunshine and most recently The Cafe, Rovers and After Hours.
Biography
Career
Cash's father worked as a joiner and he grew up in Stockport. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s/early 1990s as a music radio DJ on cult south Manchester station KFM, where his shows featured a section entitled 'Who's Mother', featuring the vocal talents of Caroline Aherne who had previously developed an Irish nun character, Sister Mary Immaculate. During this period he was also the manager of the band "That Uncertain Feeling". In 1999 Cash performed uncredited duties as script editor on That Peter Kay Thing, a fact only revealed in 2004 when he moderated the DVD commentary.
As an actor Cash is best known for playing slightly dim-witted and affable working class northern men, particularly Dave Best in the BBC sitcom The Royle Family, which he co-wrote with Caroline Aherne.
He has also written for The Fast Show and for Aherne on The Mrs Merton Show. With Phil Mealey he wrote the BBC sitcom Early Doors. They went on to write the drama Sunshine, filmed in Marple, and first broadcast on BBC 1 in 2008. They founded the independent production company Jelly Legs, which produced recent Royle Family specials, "The New Sofa" and "The Golden Egg Cup", as well as Sunshine.
In 2011 Cash directed all six episodes of The Cafe, a show written by and starring his Royle Family co-star Ralf Little. As of November 2013, Cash recently narrated the Channel 4 show Gogglebox. when regular narrator Caroline Aherne was unavailable, but took on the role permanently when Aherne died on 2 July 2016. In 2015 he directed and executive produced the new Sky 1 comedy drama After Hours, starring Jaime Winstone and Ardal O'Hanlon, written by John Osborne and Molly Naylor.
From 2015 onward, Cash narrated the Sofaworks adverts featuring Neil the sloth, before the company rebranded itself as Sofology.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | The Mrs Merton Show | Malcolm Merton | Also co-writer |
| 1998–2000, 2006–2012 | The Royle Family | Dave Best | |
| 1999 | Mrs Merton and Malcolm | Malcolm Merton | |
| 2000 | Brit Awards 2000 | Himself | |
| 2002 | Never Mind The Buzzcocks | Himself | |
| 2003–2004 | Early Doors | Joe | Also Writer |
| 2004 | Comedy Connections | Dave Best | |
| 2007 | British Academy Television Awards | Himself | |
| 2008 | Sunshine | Bob | Also Writer |
| 2013, 2015–present | Gogglebox | Himself (Voice) | Relief Narrator 2013-15 Main Narrator 2016-Present |
| 2015–present | Gogglesprogs | ||
| 2016–present | Rovers | Pete | Also Director |
Personal life
Cash currently lives in Mellor. He is married to Stephanie Davies and the couple have two sons, Harry and Billy, who appeared in the episode of The Royle Family entitled "The Queen of Sheba".
Cash is a lifelong supporter of Manchester City, and attends games regularly. He is also the cousin of former Oasis guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs.