Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale is an English actor and director of stage, film and television.
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, 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.
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 teenaged 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.
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. He starred in two series of The Chase 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. 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.
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 Johnson in "Lost" by Shaun Duggan for the Moving On series.
Writing
In 2009, Dinsdale wrote the short film Imaginary Friend which was subsequently filmed and stars Maxine Peake and Zara Turner. The film premiered on 8 May 2010 at the 360/365 Film Festival in New York City.Credits (incomplete)
- 2020–present Emmerdale
- 2017 "The Fall of the Master Builder"
- 2015 "Richard III"
- 2015 The Absence of War
- 2014 Untold Stories
- 2013 This House
- 2012 The Knife That Killed Me
- 2011 "Moving On"
- 2011 Waterloo Road
- 2010 The Lady From The Sea
Taggart - 2009 Acid Burn
- 2008–2010 Coronation Street
- 2008 Silent Witness
Midnight Man - 2007 The Chase
- 2006 Life on Mars
Dalziel and Pascoe
The Chase - 2006 Love Lies Bleeding
- 2004 Ahead of the Class
The Trouble with George
Conviction
Rabbit on the Moon - 2003 Spooks
- 2002 Born and Bred
- 2001 The Investigation
- 2000 Murder in Mind
In Deep
Visiting Mr. Green - 1999 Family Fortunes
- 1998 Love You, Too
- 1997 Romance and Rejection, Feature Film
- 1996 Thief Takers
Hamlet
China - 1995 Bliss
Thief Takers - 1994 Morning and Evening
Mirandolina
ID - 1993 A Going Concern
Report Writing - 1992 Full Stretch
Revengers Tragedy - 1991 Racing Demon
Playboy of the Western World
Young Catherine - 1990 Haggard
Wild Oats - 1989 Haggard
Boys Mean Business
Home to Roost
The Attractions - 1988 Rhinoceros
Take Me Home - 1987 Old Years Eve
Don Carlos
Coppers
Home to Roost - 1986 Woundings
The Storyteller
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
Home to Roost - 1985 Bergerac
Robin of Sherwood
Home To Roost - 1984 Glamour Night
Minder
A Private Function
Winter Flight
Threads - 1983–1984 Red Saturday
- 1983 Beethoven’s Tenth
- 1982 The Secret Adversary
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
Out on the Floor - 1981 Knife Edge
- 1980–1981 Northcott TheatreNottingham PlayhouseBirmingham Repertory Theatre