Stephen Phillip Tompkinson (born 15 October 1965) is an English actor, known for his television roles as Marcus in Chancer (1990), Damien Day in Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998), Father Peter Clifford in Ballykissangel (1996–98), Trevor Purvis in Grafters (1998–1999), Danny Trevanion in Wild at Heart (2006–2013) and the titular Alan Banks in DCI Banks (2010–2016). He won the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor. He also starred in the films Brassed Off (1996) and Hotel Splendide (2000).
Early life Tompkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees. When he was about age 4, his family moved to Scarborough, North Riding of YorkshireAt this point Scarborough was still part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. Please do not change. and then to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, where he grew up and attended St Bede's Roman Catholic High School in Lytham and St Mary's Sixth Form in Blackpool. Tompkinson's first lead was as a red admiral butterfly in The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner.
He went on to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, alongside James Nesbitt and Rufus Sewell, and graduated in 1988. Tompkinson's acting career began straight out of drama school.Keeping the faith: Alison Cowie speaks to actor Stephen Tompkinson, NorthEast Times, undated During his last year at the London School of Speech and Drama he won the 1987 Carleton Hobbs Bursary, gaining a contract as a member of the BBC's Radio Drama Company,"Radio and audio book companies", in Lloyd Trott, ed., Actors and Performers Yearbook 2016, pp. 353-354 and had roles in radio dramas.
Along with Ewan Bailey, he performed a two-part radio drama titled Say What You Want to Hear (Swywth), written by Tim Wright and broadcast in 2010 on BBC Radio 4. His narrated radio documentaries include Brass Britain, which aired in 2008 and was reprised in 2010 on BBC Radio 2.Brass Britain, BBC Radio 2, 3 May 2008
Career Television 1980s
In 1988, Tompkinson appeared with Ken Goodwin and Freddie Davies in a Channel 4 short titled Treacle, directed by Peter Chelsom. It received a 1988 BAFTA nomination in the category of Best Short Film.
During the next few years he was cast in several single-episode parts on All at No 20, Shelley, After Henry, Casualty, Made in Heaven, and Boon. He also played in three episodes of The Manageress (1989).
Also in 1989 he appeared in his first full-length made-for-TV movie. Based on a 1977 play by C.P. Taylor, And a Nightingale Sang was a romantic comedy-drama adapted for television by Jack Rosenthal.
1990s He was cast in three episodes of Tales of Sherwood Forest (1989), nine episodes of Chancer (1990), and nine episodes of Minder (1991) It received the 1990 Prix Europa Special award for the film in the category "TV Fiction". Between 1990 and 1998, Tompkinson starred in 66 episodes of the satirical comedy Drop the Dead Donkey. He played the ambitious but unethical reporter Damien Day, and won the 1994 British Comedy Awards "Best TV Comedy Actor" award.
In 1994, he was Private Simon 'Spock' Matlock, a history teacher and intellectual in BBC comedy drama All Quiet on the Preston Front, written by Tim Firth and set in Lancashire. Alistair McGowan replaced him after the first series because Tompkinson had other commitments. That same year he was in Downwardly Mobile – a Yorkshire Television sitcom about a group of Yuppies – aired for one season but failed to make an impression and was not recommissioned.British TV Comedy: Downwardly Mobile, undated
From 1996 to 1998 he portrayed, in the popular Ballykissangel, the struggles of a young English Roman Catholic priest assigned as curate to a church in Ireland's 'back of beyond'. In 1998 he starred as Jim Harper in the three-part ITV psychological thriller Oktober, about a naive English teacher at a posh school in Switzerland. His character becomes a guinea pig in the trials of a new mind-altering drug. Tompkinson performed his own stunts.All-Action Hero: OKTOBER, The Mirror (London), 28 March 1998 He says that "I grabbed this project because I'd never been asked to do anything like this before. And the chance to do stunts was one reason it was so appealing."
Also in 1998, and again in 1999, he co-starred with Robson Green in two series of Grafters, about two Geordie labourers who attempt to go into business together renovating an old London house owned by a pair of Yuppies.Broadcasting Audience Research Board (BARB) Weekly Top 30 Programmes Tompkinson's performance was praised by James Rampton of The Independent: It is Tompkinson who – despite having the less showy part – really catches the eye. In the shadow of a more successful brother and a domineering wife, he precisely captures an air of despondent, hen-pecked resignation. Like Eeyore, he seems to be pursued by his own personal raincloud. Nobody does defeated better. Tompkinson is an actor who's become a winner by playing the loser....Trevor can be added to the actor's growing gallery of characters whom viewers watch and think, 'I know that bloke.'On Air: No more Mr Nice Guy, The Independent, 26 October 1998
Tompkinson and Ballykissangel'''s Dervla Kirwan worked together again in 1999 on the TV version of Tim Firth's The Flint Street Nativity. They also co-starred in the 2001 mini-series Hereafter, which never aired in the UK but was released on DVD under the title Shades in the United States and Canada in 2012.Shades, starring Dervla Kirwan (Ballykissangel) and Stephen Tompkinson, released 14 February 2012
2000s In 2001, he co-starred with Heartbeat star Nick Berry in the mini-series In Deep, as part of BBC1's Crime Doubles season. The promotional material described his performance as "Tompkinson as you have never seen him before" and a career "gamble". He agreed with that assessment: "In Deep is a very gritty drama and not the kind of thing that I'm normally associated with".Tompkinson goes In Deep, BBC News: Entertainment, 18 February 2001
Tompkinson and Claire Skinner appeared as a couple in Series 1 of the comedy Bedtime, which aired August and September 2001.BBC One Autumn schedule, Digital Spy, 14 August 2001Tompkinson returned to the TV screen in 2001 with his co-star from Ballykissangel, Dervla Kirwan in a six part series entitled Shades, in which their two characters are dead but temporarily stuck on the earth as spirits trying to redeem themselves by fixing some complications and wrongs they have left behind.
The Age: Entertainment/TV & Radio (Australia), 4 March 2004 In 2002, he appeared as the character 'Ted' with co-star Dawn French in the comedy drama mini-series Ted and Alice.A deep and meaningful police role, Liverpool Echo, 21 January 2002 The sitcom Mr. Charity (2001), which aired on BBC2, was panned by the critics, drew poor viewer ratings, and was axed after six episodes.
In 2003, after a long delay, ITV aired the mini-series Lucky Jim. Tompkinson had bought the rights to the Kingsley Amis novel, which had not been adapted for some time, with the intention of playing the central character. Jack Rosenthal did the screenplay. The cast included Keeley Hawes as his co-star and love interest Christine, Robert Hardy, Helen McCrory, Denis Lawson, Hermione Norris and Penelope Wilton. The Guardian praised it as "deftly adapted by Jack Rosenthal ... immaculately done, not least because of Stephen Tompkinson's performance as Jim, with stellar support from [the rest of the cast, especially] Helen McCrory." In December 2004, he appeared as Detective Inspector Slack in a new adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage.Mystery! – Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage, The Actors and their Roles, PBS website
In 2004, Tompkinson played his first fact-based role in BBC1's two-part drama In Denial of Murder, playing the character of the journalist Don Hale. The drama was based on Hale's 2002 book Town Without Pity. There was controversy surrounding how the case was depicted, and in preparing to portray Don Hale he struggled to make sense of it. When asked his opinion, he explained that although he had done research to prepare for the role, he was merely an actor working from a script in which he had total faith and that he believed to be fair.
In 2005, Marian, Again was a psychological drama about the horrors that could lie within any community and just beyond anyone's front door. Owen Teale co-starred, along with Kelly Harrison in the title role and Samantha Beckinsale.Marian, Again, Company Pictures, September 2005
Of his role in Prime Suspect, Tompkinson says "I had a call from my agent who told me they were to film the last-ever Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren. And I said, 'Yes!' before she could finish. She said, 'There is a part you might be interested in...' and I said, 'I meant Yes, I'll do it, not Yes, please continue! I mean, here is a chance to work with one of the greatest actresses there is. Taking a part in the final Prime Suspect was the quickest decision I've ever made!"Production Notes: Prime Suspect By The Numbers — The Actors on Their Roles: Stephen Tompkinson
ITV drama series Wild at Heart, created by Ashley Pharoah, began airing in the UK in January 2006 and ran for seven series. Tompkinson played Bristol veterinarian Danny Trevanion, who relocated with his family to South Africa where they attempted to build up a successful wildlife preserve and veterinary surgery. Tompkinson was also co-executive producer for 33 episodes and executive producer for one.Stephen Tompkinson (DCI Banks: Aftermath), Digital Spy, 17 September 2010
2010s In 2010 he was cast as Inspector Alan Banks in DCI Banks: Aftermath, a two-part television pilot adaptation of one of Peter Robinson's crime novels. DCI Banks: Aftermath drew seven million viewers, beating BBC1's Spooks in the ratings battle for the same timeslot.Wild at Heart star Stephen Tompkinson returns as DCI Banks in dark and gritty new series, The People, 25 September 2011 On 14 June 2013, ITV announced that DCI Banks has been commissioned for a third six-part series.ITV recommissions DCI Banks with Stephen Tompkinson, 14 June 2013 He played a role in the BBC series Truckers during the same year.
Film Barely out of drama school, he appeared in 1988 (as Stephen Duffell) with Ken Goodwin and Freddie Davies in Peter Chelsom's 11-minute short film titled Treacle. It was the tale of comedian Alfie Duffell's melodic legacy, set amid the Blackpool variety scene. The work received a 1988 BAFTA nomination in the category of Best Short Film.
In 1996 he starred in a British-made international feature film, Brassed Off, about a brass band in Grimley, a fictional Yorkshire colliery town where the mines are being shut down by the Tory government in the name of progress.
In 2000, he played the role of Dezmond Blanche in the bleakly satirical film Hotel Splendide.Delighted to find a Splendide new role, Herald Scotland, 19 September 2000
In February 2012, he filmed his first lead role in a feature film titled Harrigan, described on its 2013 release in Britain as having "a thin budget and cartoonish script".Harrigan hits the screen at last, GazetteLive, 24 January 2012 Arthur McKenzie: Biography
Stage Tompkinson has said repeatedly that he enjoys the challenge of mixing television and film roles with live stage productions. He has appeared on stage in London's West End and in theatres across the UK. Of the 1992 production of Michael Wall's Women Laughing at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Alan Hulme of the Manchester Evening News described the cast as "superb....and the acting has the shocking eloquence of picture postcards in acid."Women Laughing by Michael Wall, 30 April – 16 May 1992 And The Independent described The End of the Food Chain (1994) at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough as "excellent" and "vividly acted."THEATRE / All shirk and low pay, The Independent, 8 January 1994