Everything about Ricky Tomlinson totally explained
Eric Tomlinson, better known as
Ricky Tomlinson, (born
26 September 1939 in
Bispham, Blackpool) is an
English actor.
Early life
Tomlinson was born Eric Tomlinson in
Blackpool, but has lived in
Liverpool for most of his life.
Before turning to acting, he worked as a building site plasterer for many years, becoming involved in
trade union politics and
activism. In
1972, he joined the
flying pickets in a building workers dispute in
Shrewsbury. He was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of 'conspiracy to intimidate' as one of the so-called
Shrewsbury Two, and in
1975 disrupted the
TUC conference by shouting from the wings after he'd been prevented from speaking from the stage. It was revealed in
2002 that
MI5 had monitored him during the
1970s.
In his
2003 autobiography, he revealed that between
1968 and
1972, prior to his involvement with trade union politics, he was a member of the
National Front, which he now bitterly regrets and puts down to being "politically naive and poorly educated".
Career highlights
As an actor he's found considerable success, appearing as
Bobby Grant in the
soap opera Brookside, as DCI Charlie Wise in
Cracker (UK TV series) and as
Jim Royle in the sitcom
The Royle Family.
In
2002 Tomlinson starred in the BBC TV Series
Nice Guy Eddie playing a Liverpool private investigator. Using down-to-earth cases - actually based upon real life cases by Liverpool
private investigator Tony Smith - the show also starred
Tom Ellis and
John Henshaw.
He has also starred in several films, notably,
Raining Stones and
Hillsborough, a made-for-TV film about the families' of the victims of the
Hillsborough stadium disaster.
Tomlinson has fronted a series of
commercials for privatised former nationalised utility
British Gas. In 2003 he published an
autobiography, entitled
Ricky.
Tomlinson is also a keen
banjo player, and has played the instrument in many episodes of
The Royle Family. In
2001 he teamed up with fellow
Brookside actor,
Michael Starke and other friends for his own rendition of well-known
folk songs including
It's A Long Way To Tipperary and a cover of
The Pogues'
Are You Lookin' At Me?. A CD album entitled
Music My Arse was released the same year. He released a
single at Christmas 2006 entitled
Christmas My Arse which reached #25 in the
UK Singles Chart.
On
19 June 2006 Tomlinson made his debut as the guest celebrity in
Dictionary Corner on the popular and long-running UK
Channel 4 game show
Countdown.
In the summer of 2006, Tomlinson toured at theatres across the UK with his show
An Evening with Ricky Tomlinson where he was interviewed about his life by
Elton Welsby.
In December 2006 he presented a programme in
Five's
Disappearing Britain series entitled
When Coal was King, in which he made controversial comments about
Margaret Thatcher's potential death.
In March 2007, Tomlinson presented BBC's
One Life: Guilty My Arse
, detailing his version of the Shrewsbury Two case, in which he compared his political activism as a trade unionist to the work of the suffragettes.
On
19 October,
2007 Tomlinson had a major heart operation and underwent a quadruple heart bypass at
Liverpool's
Cardiothoracic Centre. Consultant cardiac surgeon Aung Oo said: "The operation went according to plan and he's now recovering within the hospital's critical care unit."
2008 see's Tomlinson taking his "Laughter Show" on the road with fellow comedians Tony Barton, Duncan Norvelle and Pauline Daniels.
Politics
Ricky Tomlinson has been involved with both the far-left and far-right. For 4 years he was a member of the
National Front. More recent events has shown his support for the
Campaign for a New Workers' Party. A public meeting was hosted by the CNWP in Liverpool on Monday 12th February 2007 which was addressed by Ricky Tomlinson alongside
Tommy Sheridan (
Solidarity MSP) and
Tony Mulhearn in which he uses the slogan "New Labour my arse".
Filmography
(1990)
Riff-Raff
(1993)
Raining Stones
(1995)
Butterfly Kiss
(1996)
Bob's Weekend
(1997)
Das Leben ist eine Baustelle
(1997)
Preaching to the Perverted
(1997)
Mojo (film)
(1999)
The Greatest Store In The World
(2000)
Nasty Neighbours
(2001)
(2001)
The 51st State
(2002)
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
(2002)
Al's Lads
(2003)
The Virgin of Liverpool
(2007)
Stepdad (film)
(2007)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ricky Tomlinson'.
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