Alex Newcombe Walkinshaw (born 5 October 1974) is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 best known for playing the role of Inspector

Inspector

Inspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...

 Dale "Smithy" Smith

Dale Smith (The Bill)

Dale Smith is a fictional character played by Alex Walkinshaw in the British police procedural television series, The Bill. He first appeared in 1999 as a police constable, and eventually became inspector.-Character history:...

  in ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

's long running police procedural series, The Bill

The Bill

The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

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Walkinshaw was born on 5 October 1974 in Barking

Barking

Barking is a suburban town in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in East London, England. A retail and commercial centre situated in the west of the borough, it lies east of Charing Cross. Barking was in the historic county of Essex until it was absorbed by Greater London. The area is...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. His first TV appearance was at the age of 12 as an extra in Grange Hill

Grange Hill

Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television...

for a year. From 1992 to 1993 he appeared in the sitcom Side by Side

Side by Side (TV series)

Side by Side is a British sitcom starring Gareth Hunt and Louisa Rix that was broadcast for two series from 1992 to 1993. It was written by Richard Ommanney, who had also written Three Up, Two Down.-Cast:*Gareth Hunt - Vince Tulley...

.

In between acting jobs in the 1990s, he also worked as a labourer, office fitter and also at a snooker hall in Barking

Barking

Barking is a suburban town in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in East London, England. A retail and commercial centre situated in the west of the borough, it lies east of Charing Cross. Barking was in the historic county of Essex until it was absorbed by Greater London. The area is...

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In 2000, the left handed Walkinshaw met his wife Sarah when she worked as a make-up artist on The Bill.