Alan Armstrong (born 17 July 1946), known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English character actor. He grew up in County Durham, in North East England, and became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic."Kalina, Paul, "Old Hand Returns with New Tricks", The Age, 8 November 2007. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
His credits include several Charles Dickens adaptations and the eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in New Tricks. He is also an accomplished stage actor and spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Monsieur Thénardier in the West End production of Les Misérables and won an Olivier Award in the title role of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Early life He was born Alan Armstrong in Annfield Plain, County Durham. His father was a coal miner and both his parents were Methodist lay preachers.Keal, Graham, "Alun's Glad to Be Gay" , Sunday Sun, 18 July 2004. Retrieved 2011-01-29. He attended Annfield Plain Junior School, then Consett Grammar School, where a teacher inspired him to try acting. In the lower sixth he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, a role he later played with the Royal Shakespeare Company.Lockyer, Daphne, "Alun Armstrong" , TES Magazine, 27 June 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
Armstrong took part in the National Youth Theatre summer school in 1964, but his background and northern accent made him feel out of place. He studied fine art at Newcastle University. He found the course pretentious and felt that he did not fit in, and he was sent down after two years when he stopped attending classes.
Armstrong had jobs with a bricklayer and as a gravedigger before he decided to try acting again. He started out as an assistant stage manager at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, then went on to a Theatre in Education company affiliated with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre. He also performed in several Radio 4 dramas.
Career
Film Armstrong made his screen debut in Get Carter (1971).Chibnall, Steve (2003). Get Carter: The British Film Guide 6, London: I B Tauris & Co Ltd., p. 34 . On learning that the film was being made in Newcastle, Armstrong wrote a letter to MGM, the studio making the film, and was invited to meet director Mike Hodges, who was keen to cast local actors.Mitchell, Wendy, "Get Armstrong", Screen Daily, 23 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
Armstrong has appeared in a number of films, although usually in supporting roles. In A Bridge Too Far (1977) he had a small role as one of the British troops at the Battle of Arnhem.Cummings, Mike, "Alun Armstrong", All Movie Guide. Retrieved 2011-02-12. He played a French soldier, Lieutenant Lecourbe, in Ridley Scott's 1977 film The Duellists. He had a supporting role as the bandit leader Torquil in the 1983 fantasy film Krull.Maslin, Janet, "Movie Review: Krull (1983): Adventure with Magic and a Beast", The New York Times, 29 July 1983. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
His first cinematic lead role was as Maxwell Randall, the titular vampire in Alan Clarke's snooker musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987). Armstrong sang I Bite Back.
In Patriot Games (1992) Armstrong played an SO-13 officer. In Braveheart (1995), he played the Scottish noble Mornay who betrayed William Wallace.Travers, Peter, "Braveheart" , Rolling Stone, 1 January 1995. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He was the villainous Egyptian cult leader Baltus Hafez in The Mummy Returns (2001),"The Mummy Returns", Theiapolis Cinema. Retrieved 2011-02-11. and he portrayed Saint Peter with a Geordie accent in Millions (2004)."Millions Film Review", Film4. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He also had small roles as the High Constable in Sleepy Hollow (1999),Horrod, Marion, , Planet Origo, 1 November 2009. Retrieved 2011-02-11. Cardinal Jinette in Van Helsing (2004),Geary, Christopher, , The Zone. Retrieved 2011-02-10. Magistrate Fang in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005) and Uncle Garrow in Eragon (2006).Warren, Bill, "Eragon" , Audio Video Revolution, 15 December 2006. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
Television Armstrong has had more than 80 roles in television productions."Alun Armstrong" , BFI Film and TV Database. Retrieved 2011-02-12. During the 1970s he appeared in various TV series, including episodes of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge, Public Eye and The Sweeney."BBC Drama People Index: Alun Armstrong", BBC. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
He was cast in two mini-series dealing with coal miners in North East England. He played Joe Gowlan in The Stars Look Down (1974) based on the novel by A. J. Cronin and he appeared in Ken Loach's Days of Hope (1975) set in his native County Durham."The Stars Look Down", BFI Film and TV Database. Retrieved 2011-02-10.Williams, Tony, "Days of Hope", Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 2011-02-06. In a 2007 interview, Armstrong singled out Days of Hope as a favourite: "I loved that because it was my own history and background that was being dramatised and, in a way, nothing gets better than that."
In the comedy series A Sharp Intake of Breath he played a variety of characters who complicate the life of the main character played by David Jason."Britain's Best Sitcom", BBC, January 2004. Retrieved 2001-02-12. In 1977 he was the strict Deputy Headmaster in Willy Russell's Our Day Out, a television play about a group of working-class schoolchildren on a day trip."Our Day Out", Willy Russell website. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He also starred in the 1981 Yorkshire Television drama Get Lost!"The Beiderbecke Tapes", BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
Armstrong has portrayed characters from the works of Charles Dickens. He played Wackford Squeers and Mr Wagstaff in the eight-hour Royal Shakespeare Company stage adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby that was filmed for television in 1982.Sinyard, Neil, "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby", BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He has appeared in two versions of Oliver Twist: the 1999 ITV mini-series as Agnes Fleming's father Captain Fleming and the 2005 Roman Polanski film as Magistrate Fang."Oliver Twist" , PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-10.Romney, Jonathan, "Oliver Twist", The Independent, 9 October 2005. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He has had roles in four BBC Dickens adaptations, as Daniel Peggotty in David Copperfield (1999);"David Copperfield" , PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-10. as Inspector Bucket in Bleak House (2005);"Bleak House" , PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-10. as Jeremiah and Ephraim Flintwinch in Little Dorrit (2008);"Little Dorrit" , PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-10. and as Hiram Grewgious in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012)."Cast announced for The Mystery Of Edwin Drood on BBC Two", BBC Press Office, 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-02. Armstrong has been a fan of Dickens since reading David Copperfield aloud in school. He particularly remembered Dan Peggotty's houseboat on the beach, and in order to play the role he turned down an offer from Clint Eastwood, with whom he had worked on White Hunter Black Heart."Dan Peggotty: Alun Armstrong" , PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-12.
In the BBC drama series Our Friends in the North (1996) he played Austin Donohue, a character based on the politician T. Dan Smith.O'Neill, Martin, "Labour's Friends in the North", New Statesman, 3 December 2007. Retrieved 2011-01-29. Armstrong portrayed 18th century politician Henry Fox in the BBC serial Aristocrats (1999). In the 2000 TV film This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, he portrayed George Oldfield, the Assistant Chief Constable for Crime at West Yorkshire Police whose health deteriorated during the investigation as he received messages purportedly from the killer.Sloan, Billy, "TV preview; Policeman who ended up Ripper's 14th victim", Yorkshire Post, 23 January 2000. Retrieved 2011-02-02. He was nominated for a Royal Television Society award for his role in This Is Personal.
In the second series of Bedtime (2002) he played a widower concerned about his son's suspicious behaviour."Bedtime", BBC. Retrieved 2011-02-10. He and Brenda Blethyn co-starred in Between the Sheets (2003) as a frustrated married couple in sex therapy.Grant, Frances, "Sexual Healing in the 'burbs", The New Zealand Herald, 9 December 2004. Retrieved 2011-02-11. In an adaptation of Carrie's War, he played a strict man who reluctantly takes in two children evacuated to Wales during World War II."Carrie's War", PBS. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
Armstrong is known for his role as Brian Lane in the BBC One series New Tricks about a group of former police detectives who help investigate unsolved and open cases for London's Metropolitan Police. The character of Brian Lane is an obsessive and socially inept recovering alcoholic who has a great capacity for remembering details of old cases and colleagues. In August 2012 Armstrong announced he would leave the show after the tenth series. The announcement followed comments by the cast in an interview with the Radio Times that criticised some of the series' writing and which drew an angry rebuttal from the show's writer-director, Julian Simpson.
During the run of New Tricks Armstrong continued to take on other projects. He starred in the 2004 TV film When I'm 64 about a lonely retired schoolteacher who starts a relationship with another man. He chose the role despite his apprehension about filming a love scene with co-star Paul Freeman, because he thought it was a lovely and thought-provoking story."When I'm 64", BBC Press Office, 2 July 2004. Retrieved 2001-02-13. He also starred in The Girls Who Came to Stay (2006), about a British couple who take in two girls exposed to the effects of the Chernobyl disaster,"Alun Armstrong on The Girls Who Came to Stay" , Memorable TV, 14 April 2006. Retrieved 2011-02-12. and Filth (2008), as the husband of "Clean-Up TV" activist Mary Whitehouse.Wiegand, David, "TV Review: Filth and a Crusading Housewife", San Francisco Chronicle, 14 November 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-12.
For three series from 2009 to 2011 he played William Garrow's mentor John Southouse in the BBC period legal drama Garrow's Law."Garrow's Law", BBC. Retrieved 2011-02-10. In 2012, he played the Earl of Northumberland in the BBC2 adaptations of Henry IV, Parts I and II. His son Joe Armstrong played Northumberland's son Hotspur. In the 2014 Showtime horror series Penny Dreadful, Armstrong played Vincent Brand, an actor who gives Frankenstein's monster a job at the Grand Guignol. He guest starred in the 2014 Christmas special of Downton Abbey, and took the role of Clifford Bentley in ITV police drama Prime Suspect 1973.
Theatre In addition to his film and television work Armstrong has acted in many theatre productions. One of his early roles was Billy Spencer in David Storey's play The Changing Room at the Royal Court Theatre directed by Lindsay Anderson in 1971."The Changing Room" , Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2011-02-01. In 1975, he played Touchstone in As You Like It directed by Peter Gill at the Nottingham Playhouse.
Armstrong spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1979 to 1988. On tour and at the Warehouse in 1979–80 he played Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing"The RSC Shakespeare Staging History – Much Ado About Nothing" , Royal Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 2011-02-01. and Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle."Caucasian Chalk Circle", Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Archive. Retrieved 2011-02-01.