David Threlfall

David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2024 he played Paul Peveril in the six-part BBC drama Nightsleeper.

For his role in Nicholas Nickleby, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1980, which was followed by a second nomination in the Best Actor category in 2006 for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.^[4][5] His role in Paradise Postponed (1986) earned Threlfall a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.^[6] In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.

Early life

The son of Joyce Foulds and her husband, Tom Threlfall, a plumber, Threlfall was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, Lancashire. The family lived in Blackley, then moved to the Bradford area of Manchester and then Burnage when he was 8/9.^[7] His introduction to drama came from school and two English teachers, Alan Johnson and Frank Casey, at Wilbraham High School, where he was a contemporary of the younger Lorraine Ashbourne.

Threlfall studied at art college in Sheffield (now Sheffield Hallam University), but only stayed for a year. A few months of labouring and thinking followed. Having consulted a magazine in a public library which listed drama colleges, Threlfall successfully applied to the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. By graduation, he had an audition with Mike Leigh.^[8]

Threlfall has been a supporter of Manchester City since childhood and was the voice over for the film played before every home game during the 2017–18 season.^[9]

Career

Threlfall graduated from the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. He has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his 1977 acting debut in "The Kiss of Death" (Mike Leigh). He was in the original Play for Today version of the film Scum as the eloquent Archer.^[10] His television appearances include Trevor in Mike Leigh's 1977 made-for-TV film Kiss of Death, Leslie Titmuss in Paradise Postponed, and Edgar in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983) opposite Laurence Olivier in the title role. He also had regular roles in the situation comedies Nightingales,^[11] and Men of the World,^[11] and guest appearances in dramas such as Cutting It, The Knock, CI5: The New Professionals and Spooks. He played Prince Charles in Diana: Her True Story (1993) and his father Prince Philip in The Queen's Sister (2005). Threlfall played the central character of Frank Gallagher in Paul Abbott's Shameless, shown on Channel 4 for 11 series between 2004 and 2013.^[11]

Threlfall also played the role of Friedrich Kritzinger in the BBC/HBO drama Conspiracy (2001),^[12] a dramatisation of the infamous Wannsee Conference. In 2006, he played the domineering husband of wartime diarist Nella Last, in the TV drama Housewife, 49.^[12] His film credits include John le Carré's The Russia House,^[12] Patriot Games,^[12] Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,^[12] Elizabeth: The Golden Age alongside Cate Blanchett,^[12] and as John Lennon's Uncle George in Nowhere Boy.^[12]

Threlfall was in Gregory J. Read's 2006 film Like Minds and played John Colbie. He was also in Alien Autopsy^[12] and played the character Martin Blower acting alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the British comedy film Hot Fuzz (2007).^[11]

Threlfall starred in an episode of The Whistle Blowers. He starred as the lead role in the fifth episode of the BBC docu-drama series Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire as the Emperor Constantine I. Threlfall voiced the part of Iago in Othello for the Arcangel audio production of same. He also voiced the detective Paolo Baldi in BBC Radio 4's Baldi,^[13] and read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for a radio adaptation. He played Jack in When the Whales Came (1989), opposite Paul Scofield and Helen Mirren.

In 2013, Threlfall played retired London detective Len Harper in the short murder mystery BBC series What Remains alongside Russell Tovey and Amber Rose Revah.^[14]

In 2024, Threlfall starred alongside Noel Fielding in The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.^[11]

Stage

In 1980, Threlfall played Smike in the eight-hour stage version of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby for the Royal Shakespeare Company in both London and New York.

Threlfall's other notable stage performances include Riddley Walker, Oedipus, Macbeth, Your Home In The West and Peer Gynt "The Count of Monte Cristo" all at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Bolingbroke in Richard II and Orgon in Tartuffe at the National Theatre in London. He received an Olivier nomination in Frank McGuiness' "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" at the Ambassador's Theatre in 2005. He also appeared in Beckett's rarely performed "The Old Tune" with Niall Buggy, directed by Trevor Nunn at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2019.

In March 2016, Threlfall appeared as the lead in Don Quixote, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he is an Associate Artist. The play was revived in 2018 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He is also a director of ATS (Artists Theatre School), started by Amanda Redman to help give young actors who cannot afford full-time drama school fees get exposure to training from industry professionals

Personal life

Threlfall has been married to Bosnian actress Brana Bajic since 1995.^[15] They met in 1994, whilst working on The Count of Monte Cristo at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.^[15] They have two children.

Threlfall has said that despite his Shameless character being a chain smoker, in real life he is a non-smoker who has a dislike for nicotine.^[16]

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

• Blackie, The Sons of Light by David Rudkin for the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon (1977)
• Jake, A&R by Pete Atkin for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Warehouse Theatre, London (1978)
• Fitz, Savage Amusement by Peter Flannery for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Warehouse Theatre, London (1978)
• Mike, Shout Across The River by Stephen Poliakoff for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Warehouse Theatre, London (1978)
• Mark Antony, Julius Caesar at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (1979)
• Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (1979)
• Viktor, The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman for the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon (1979)
• Smike, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby adapted by David Edgar for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre, London and then at the Plymouth Theatre, New York (1980)
• Apoo, Topokana Martyrs' Day by Jonathan Falla at the Bush Theatre, London (1983)
• Bolingbroke, Richard II at the Royal National Theatre, London (1985)
• Riddley Walker, Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1986)
• Hamlet for the Oxford Playhouse at the Edinburgh Festival (1986)
• Oedipus, Oedipus by Sophocles at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1987)
• The Traveller by Jean Claude Van Itallie at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester and then the Almeida (1987)
• Macbeth, Macbeth at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1988)
• Bussy D'Ambois by George Chapman at the Old Vic (1988)
• Ian, Over a Barrel by Stephen Bill, Palace Theatre, Watford (1989)
• Gregers Werle, The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen at the Phoenix Theatre, London (1990)
• Micky, Your Home in the West by Rod Wooden at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1991)
• The Count, The Count of Monte Cristo at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1994)
• Lovborg, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen at the Chichester Festival Theatre (1996)
• The Count, The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh at the Criterion Center (1996)
• Norman Nestor, Odysseus Thump by Richard Hope at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds (1997)
• Garry Essendine, Present Laughter by Noël Coward at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1998)
• Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1999)
• Orgon, Tartuffe by Moliere at the National Theatre, London (2002)
• Robert, Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall at the Duchess Theatre, London (2001)
• Skellig by David Almond at the Young Vic, London (2003)
• Michael, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuiness at the Ambassadors Theatre, London (2005)
• Don Quixote, Don Quixote adapted by James Fenton from the novel by Miguel de Cervantes at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (2016)
• Cream, The Old Tune (Beckett Triple Bill) at Jermyn Street Theatre, directed by Trevor Nunn (2019)
• Harry Wade, Hangmen by Martin McDonagh at the John Golden Theatre (2022)
• Maurice Grosse, The Enfield Haunting (2023)^[19][20]

Accolades

Threlfall was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University on 15 July 2013. An Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 2014. He has a SWET (Olivier) Award, two TONY nominations and an EMMY nomination, The Clarence Derwent Award, five RTS Awards and a BAFTA for Housewife49 with Victoria Wood. He received two Sony Radio Awards for playing Spike Milligan in 2018 and Ken Dodd in 2020.^[21]

References

1. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007
2. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
3. ^ Gilbert, Gerard (2015-03-28). "David Threlfall interview: The actor takes a forensic approach in Code of a Killer as he leaves Shameless's Frank Gallagher behind". The Independent. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
4. ^ "Olivier Winners 1980". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
5. ^ "Olivier Winners 2006". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
6. ^ "Actor". Bafta. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
7. ^ Jury, Louise (6 January 2007). "David Threlfall: Frank, in more than one sense". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 April 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
8. ^ "David Threlfall: I drive directors nuts, I'm a bit of a handful'". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
9. ^ Celebrity fans: David Threlfall, FourFourTwo.com
10. ^ Pryor, Cathy, David Threlfall: Being Frank and Shameless, Independent.co.uk, 7 January 2007
11. ^ "David Threlfall". comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
12. ^ "David Threlfall Credits". tvguide.com. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
13. ^ BALDI SERIES 4, BBC.co.uk
14. ^ "BBC - Q&A with Amber Rose Revah - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
15. ^ Elkin, Susan, Art of the shapeshifter — David Threlfall, TheStage.co.uk, 6 May 2004
16. ^ "Celebrity news: gossip, pictures & video". Mirror.co.uk. 2017-05-27. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
17. ^ The Daughter-in-Law – BBC – Radio Times
18. ^ Fletcher, Harry (2015-04-07). "David Threlfall, Anna Maxwell-Martin for ITV's Midwinter of the Spirit". Digitalspy.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
19. ^ Murray, Braham (2007). The Worst It Can Be Is a Disaster. London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-0-7136-8490-2.
20. ^ The Royal Exchange Theatre Company Words & Pictures 1976-1998, 1998, ISBN 0-9512017-1-9
21. ^ "Honorands 2013 · Honorary Graduates · About Manchester Metropolitan University · Manchester Metropolitan University". Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-15.

External links

• David Threlfall at IMDb