Early life

Costigan was born in Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 and grew up in Irlams o' th' Height

Irlams o' th' Height

Irlams o' th' Height is an area of Pendleton, in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is on the extremity of the City of Salford metropolitan district boundary, and stands next to Swinton and Pendlebury...

 and Weaste

Weaste

Weaste is an inner city area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It is an industrial area, with many industrial estates. The A57 road passes through Weaste, which lies close to the M602 motorway...

 in Salford

County Borough of Salford

Salford was, from 1844 to 1974, a local government district in the northwest of England, coterminate with Salford. It was granted city status in 1926.-Free Borough and Police Commissioners:...

. He attended St. Augustine's C of E Primary School

St. Augustine's Church, Pendlebury

St. Augustine's is a High Anglican church in the Diocese of Manchester, once called "The Miners' Cathedral" due to its almost "cathedralesque" stature in the heart of a one time coal mining community. Also sometimes called "Gussie's" by locals....

 on Bolton Road

A666 road

The A666 is a major road in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, England. Known as Manchester Road, Bolton Road, or Blackburn Road, depending on which area it is in, it runs from its junction with A6 and A580 at the Irlams o' th' Height boundary with Pendlebury near Manchester, through Pendlebury,...

 in Pendlebury

Pendlebury

Pendlebury is a suburban town in the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies to the northwest of Manchester city centre, northwest of Salford, and southeast of Bolton....

, then Wardley Grammar School

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 on Mardale Avenue in Wardley near Swinton

Swinton, Greater Manchester

Swinton is a town within the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located on the A6 road it stands on gently sloping ground on the southwest side of the River Irwell, and within the bounds of the orbital M60 motorway. It is west-northwest of Salford, and west-northwest of Manchester...

.

Career

Costigan has been on television since 1978. In 1984 he appeared as Philip The Bastard

Philip of Cognac

Philip of Cognac was an illegitimate son of Richard I of England by an unidentified mother.Philip had reached adulthood by the end of the 1190s. His father married him to his ward, Amelia, the heiress of Cognac in Charente...

 in the BBC Television Shakespeare

BBC Television Shakespeare

The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:...

 production of The Life and Death of King John (alongside Leonard Rossiter

Leonard Rossiter

Leonard Rossiter was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp , and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...

 in the title role).

He rose to fame in 1986 as adulterous businessman Bob in the comedy film Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a 1986 British film directed by Alan Clarke about two West Yorkshire teenaged schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man. It was adapted by Andrea Dunbar, based on two of her stage plays; Rita Sue and Bob Too and The Arbor...

. He has since starred or featured in many television productions, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective and illustrated by Sidney Paget....

(providing mellifluous Peter Lorre-type villainy) Kavanagh QC

Kavanagh QC

Kavanagh QC is a British television series made by Carlton Television for ITV between 1995 and 2001. It has been shown on ITV3 as recently as August 2011; series 1–6 are available on Region 2 DVDs....

, Murder Most Horrid

Murder Most Horrid

Murder Most Horrid is a BBC dark comedy anthology series starring comedian Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999....

, So Haunt Me

So Haunt Me

So Haunt Me is a British television sitcom about a family that moves into a home occupied by the ghost of its previous resident, a middle-aged Jewish mother. The show was produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC and originally aired from 1992 to 1994....

, London's Burning

London's Burning

London's Burning was a British television drama programme produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network that focused on the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, principally those of the Blue Watch at a fictional fire station called Blackwall.It was broadcast between 1986 and...

, 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...

, Holby City

Holby City

Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...

, Dalziel and Pascoe

Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)

Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...

, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is a series of BBC television programmes about Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton of Scotland Yard and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers...

, The Beiderbecke Connection

The Beiderbecke Connection

The Beiderbecke Connection is a four part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne...

, New Tricks and Casualty

Casualty (TV series)

Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...

. His film work includes Calendar Girls

Calendar Girls

Calendar Girls is a 2003 comedy film directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Buena Vista International and Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi based on a true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia...

and Shirley Valentine

Shirley Valentine (film)

Shirley Valentine is a 1989 British/American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay by Willy Russell is based on his 1986 one-character play of the same title.-Plot:...

.

He has appeared in the role of Max Capricorn in the 2007 Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned

Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)

"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...

.

His partner is the writer Julia North, with whom he wrote a 1990 episode of Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather was a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC1 from 1989 until 1998. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers.The first episode sees sisters...

. They have three sons – Niall (who is also an actor), Tom and Liam.

In the theatre, he created the role of Mickey Johnstone in Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers, originally at the Liverpool Playhouse, and later at the Lyric Theatre, London. He most recently played the role of Estragon in Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

's play Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...

at the Manchester Library Theatre

Manchester Central Library

Manchester Central Library is a circular library south of the extended Town Hall in Manchester, England. It acts as the headquarters of the Manchester Library & Information Service, which also consists of 22 other community libraries.Designed by E...

 for three weeks from 16 February to 8 March 2008, and played Willy Loman in Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

's Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Premiered at the Morosco Theatre in February 1949, the original production ran for a total of 742 performances.-Plot :Willy Loman...

at York Theatre Royal

York Theatre Royal

The York Theatre Royal is a theatre in St. Leonard's Place, York, England, which dates back to 1744. The theatre currently seats 847 people. This reduced capacity takes into account removal of the mixing position seats and the stage side boxes which are normally not sold...

 in November 2008. In December 2009, it was announced that he is to join Emmerdale

Emmerdale

Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

as a friend of Rodney Blackstock

Rodney Blackstock

Rodney Blackstock is a fictional character on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. He is played by Patrick Mower.-2000–:When Rodney Blackstock turned up in Emmerdale, no one was more surprised to see him than his ex-wife Diane...

. He made his debut in the soap in March 2010 and his last appearance was shown on 23 July 2010. On 4/5 April 2010, he starred as Alan, the ex-husband of Christine, Inspector Frost's new love interest in A Touch of Frost.

Personal life

He had an early marriage which broke down as he pursued his acting ambitions. In 1974, he joined the Liverpool Everyman Theatre Company

Everyman Theatre

The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Established in 1964 in a former cinema, it encouraged local talent and played a part in the development of new artistes and writers. The theatre was rebuilt between 1975 and 1977, and was closed again for...

, where he met his second wife, remaining with the company for eight years.

Costigan is an avid supporter of Everton Football Club.

External links

• George Costigan CV
• "George returns to home", 2002 profile in the Salford Advertiser