A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Gary Bleasdale

Gary Bleasdale was born in Liverpool in 1962 and got into acting in an unusual way. He was 16 and was decorating his uncle's cousin's house. The house belonged to writer Alan Bleasdale, officially his second cousin, (the son of Alan's cousin), but he'd always been like his Uncle Alan. Gary told him he wanted to be an actor, and the following week Alan heard about a director who was doing an episode of the last series of 'Z- Cars' (1978) and was struggling to find anyone to do the part of lead thug called Shane Doolan, Gary went down without any idea of how to behave, but had the confidence of ignorance! He changed the words in the script around, telling them that it wasn't good writing, and the director was impressed enough to give him the part. Two years later he had a lead role in 'The Black Stuff' (1978), a one-off television play by Alan Bleasdale which developed into the seminal early 1980's TV series 'The Boys from the Blackstuff' (1982) in which Gary reprised his role as Kevin Dean.

Further roles followed, but the most noteable were as Bignall in 4 episodes of 'Scully' (1984) then as Gary the Scouser in 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' (1990-92) before playing the same character in 'Harry Enfield and Chums' (1994-98).

with Andrew Schofield in 'Scully'

Following 4 appearances as Donnelly in 'Brookside' (1995), he was in ''The Bill' (1995), 'Jake's Progress' (1985) and had a part as a bar patron in an episode of the BBC TV series 'Red Dwarf' (1997). Alongside Julie Walters, Adrian Dunbar, Michael Angelis and Andrew Schofield, he played Statto in the TV mini series 'Melissa' (1997), followed by 4 appearances in 'Roger Roger' (1998-99). Other roles were Terry Roe in 'Merseybeat' (2003), Simon Beecham in '55 Degrees North' (2005), played the Sheriff's sergeant in the BBC adaptation of Robin Hood' (2006), and then in 'Coronation Street' (2008) as Mally, the put-upon boyfriend of scheming Teresa Bryant. The BBC series 'Casualty' (1998-2010) provided him with 3 different roles and he was also a foreman in the unrelated series about a historic London Hospital at the turn of the century, 'Casualty1909' (2009). His final TV appearances were in 'My Family' (2011) and 'Good Cop' (2012).

Despite his acting career he says, "Acting I can take or leave, but I love writing. Especially theatre, there's nothing like it. It's just the best feeling I've ever had. I'm not good enough to be in my own plays! One play was called 'Stone Circles', it was about the breakdown of a marriage. From that first play I got a theatre attachment." As a playwright he has had three scripts performed on Radio 4, the second of which, 'A Song For Edmond Shakespeare (2005) was nominated for a Sony award. His next radio play, 'Eight Frames a Second' (2006), was a dramatised account of the life of the early cinema pioneer and inventor William Friese-Greene. He also played a brute in 'On The Ledge', at The Royal Court Liverpool in April/May 2008 and Terry in 'Lost Soul' at The Royal Court in September 2008. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-crissy.html