Reece Dinsdale (born 6 August 1959) is an English actor and director of stage, film and television. He is a Huddersfield Town fan.^[1] In 2017 he became a patron of the Square Chapel, an arts centre in Halifax.^[2] He is also an honorary patron of The Old Courts multi-arts centre in Wigan^[3]

Acting career

Dinsdale trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 until 1980. After initially working in theatre in Exeter, Nottingham, Birmingham and at the Edinburgh Festival, Dinsdale got his first TV role in the Granada thriller Knife Edge in 1981. He followed this up by appearing in Out on the Floor a single drama for the BBC in 1982. This led to him being cast as Albert in Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime series for ITV in 1982.

More theatre followed with Beethoven's Tenth with Peter Ustinov at the Vaudeville Theatre, London and the highly acclaimed Red Saturday at the Royal Court. He played Jimmy Kemp in Threads (1984), a-soon-to-be-father and husband caught up in a nuclear attack on Sheffield. 1984 also saw Dinsdale appearing in one of his first feature films, Alan Bennett's A Private Function, and the TV movie Winter Flight opposite Nicola Cowper.

Glamour Night, another single drama for the BBC followed in 1984 before Dinsdale was cast as Matthew Willows in the British sitcom Home to Roost written by Eric Chappell and co-starring John Thaw. Dinsdale played Thaw's unruly teenage son Matthew who comes to live with his estranged father after his mother throws him out. The show ran for four series between 1985 and 1990.

Interspersed with this were many appearances on stage, including the award-winning play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1986, Woundings and Don Carlos at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and Old Year's Eve at the Royal Shakespeare Company. On television he had leading roles in the three-part series Take Me Home, and The Attractions, and the single drama Coppers opposite Tim Roth. He also played Fearnot in Jim Henson's "The Storyteller" which aired 26 October 1987.

Dinsdale played the leading role of Jack Rover in Wild Oats in the inaugural production at the newly built West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1990. He then appeared in Young Catherine, a miniseries in which he played the Grand Duke Peter. He then appeared at the National Theatre in David Hare's Racing Demon.

From 1990 to 1992 he co-starred in Haggard, a comedy set in the late 18th century. In 1994, he played the leading role in ID, a British feature film charting the demise of a police officer who goes undercover to root out a firm of football hooligans. Based on a true story, Dinsdale won the International Critics Award for best actor at the Geneva Film Festival.

Dinsdale has continued to play leading roles on both stage and screen. Highlights include two series of Thief Takers in which he played the central role of Charlie Scott, and Kenneth Branagh's film of Hamlet in which he played Guildenstern opposite Timothy Spall's Rosencrantz. He guested in Spooks, Life on Mars, Murder in Mind, Silent Witness, and many others.

Dinsdale starred opposite Julie Walters in the ITV drama Ahead of the Class and played Robert in Conviction for the BBC (directed by Marc Munden). He starred in two series of The Chase (also for the BBC) and in two thrillers for ITV, Love Lies Bleeding and Midnight Man.

In 2008, he joined the cast of Coronation Street to play the ill-fated Joe McIntyre, leaving of his own volition in February 2010.^[4] Since then he filmed leading guest roles in Waterloo Road, Taggart and Moving On. He played Doctor Wengel in Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. In 2012 he appeared in the feature film The Knife That Killed Me. In 2013, Dinsdale played the role of Walter Harrison in James Graham's smash hit play This House on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre - directed by Jeremy Herrin. In 2014, he played Alan Bennett in Bennett's autobiographical play Untold Stories at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

In 2015 Dinsdale played the central role of George Jones in Headlong's national tour of Sir David Hare's play The Absence of War, once again directed by Jeremy Herrin. In October 2015 Dinsdale played the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III at The West Yorkshire Playhouse for director Mark Rosenblatt. He has an extensive list of BBC Radio Drama credits and, in 2014, he was awarded a Yorkshire Award for Services to Arts and Entertainment. In 2015, he became the first actor to be named Associate Artist at The West Yorkshire Playhouse. In 2017, Dinsdale was made a patron of the Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax.^[5]

In 2020, Dinsdale joined the ITV soap opera Emmerdale playing the villainous Paul Ashdale. Dinsdale left the soap after just a year in 2021 when his character was killed off in an explosion.

Directing

In January 2012 Dinsdale directed his first drama for television; a 45-minute single drama called "The Crossing" starring Lee Boardman, Ramona Marquez and Susie Blake, in the Secrets and Words series for BBC1. In July and August 2014 he directed the episode "Madge" in the Moving On series starring Hayley Mills, Kenneth Cranham and Peter Egan, again for BBC1.

In May 2015, Dinsdale completed his third drama for BBC Television, "Scratch", starring Will Ash and Chris Coghill, once again for the Moving On series. Dinsdale thereafter directed a fourth TV drama, again in the Moving On series, for Jimmy McGovern: "Eighteen", a story about the attempted deportation of an Afghan youth back to his native Kabul, starring Antonio Aakeel and Rosie Cavaliero. The series was aired in November 2016. In 2017, Dinsdale directed Sue Johnston in "Lost" by Shaun Duggan for the Moving On series. He has directed several episodes of Emmerdale and announced in spring 2022 that he is to direct episodes of Coronation Street.

Writing

In 2009, Dinsdale wrote the short film Imaginary Friend which was subsequently filmed and stars Maxine Peake and Zara Turner.^[6] The film premiered on 8 May 2010 at the 360/365 Film Festival in New York City.^[7]

Credits (incomplete)

References

External links

• Reece Dinsdale at IMDb