Kevin Whately
Encyclopedia
Kevin Whately is an English
actor
.
Whately is known for his starring role as Neville Hope in the British
television comedy
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
, his role as Dr Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice
, and as Robert "Robbie" Lewis
in the crime dramas
Inspector Morse
and Lewis.
, near Hexham
, Northumberland
. His mother, Mary (née Pickering-), was a teacher and his father, Richard, was a Commander in the Royal Navy
. His maternal grandmother, Doris Phillips, was a professional concert singer and his great-great-grandfather, Richard Whately
, was Anglican Archbishop of Dublin
. The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 2 March 2009, also revealed that Whately is a descendant, on his paternal side, of Thomas Whately
of Nonsuch Park
, a leading London
merchant, English politician and writer who became a director of the Bank of England
, and of Major Robert Thompson, a pioneer tobacco plantation owner in Virginia
who was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian
cause at the time of the English Commonwealth.
Whately was educated at Barnard Castle School
, and studied drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama
. His brother, Frank, is a drama lecturer at a London university. Before going professional, Whately was an amateur actor at the People's Theatre
, Newcastle upon Tyne during the 1970s.
, and still plays guitar
, performing for charity concerts: Along with other Auf Wiedersehen, Pet stars, he makes an appearance at the biennial benefit concert Sunday for Sammy in Newcastle. Before becoming an actor, he started training as an accountant
.
His acting career includes several stage plays, among them an adaptation of Twelve Angry Men and film appearances in The Return of the Soldier
, The English Patient
, Paranoid and Purely Belter
.
Whately's television appearances include episodes of Shoestring, Angels
, Juliet Bravo
, Strangers
, Coronation Street
, Shackleton
, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
, Marple
, Inspector Morse
, Alas Smith and Jones
, Look and Read
, You Must Be The Husband
, B&B
, Peak Practice
, Skallagrigg, The Broker's Man, Murder in Mind, 2003 Comic Relief Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Lewis, New Tricks, Who Gets the Dog?
, The Children
and Silent Cry (film)
. Whately provided one of the voices for the English language version of the 1999 claymation Children's television series
Hilltop Hospital
. He has also appeared in an advert for Water Aid doing a voice over.
Perhaps his most memorable television appearances were as Detective Sergeant Lewis, the down-to-earth complement to the snobbishly intellectual Inspector Morse
. He reprised the role in the spin-off series Lewis, in which Lewis returns to Oxford as full Inspector. With his new partner, the Cambridge-educated Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (Laurence Fox
), Inspector Lewis solves murder mysteries while trying to rebuild his life after his wife's sudden death in a road accident, and to gain recognition from his sceptical new boss.
Richard Marson's book celebrating fifty years of Blue Peter
comments that Whately auditioned as a presenter for the show in 1980 but lost out to Peter Duncan
.
, with his wife actress Madelaine Newton
, who starred in 1970s BBC drama When the Boat Comes In
. The couple have two children: Catherine "Kitty" Whately, born in 1983, who appeared as Kevin's on-screen daughter in the series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
for the first two seasons; and Kieran, born in 1985. Kitty also appeared as a contestant on the game show Deal or No Deal
in February 2011, playing her game on 24 February, in which she revealed she was now working as an opera singer, as well as being a postgraduate student, and that she has one daughter, Ivy, born on 11 December 2006 (inspiring her to use 18, 12, 6, as her first box numbers).
Whately enjoys music; he listens to Pink Floyd
and Dire Straits
. He supports Burnley F.C
on the football field and as a cricket
er admitted to Inspector Morse writer Colin Dexter
that he would like to have played cricket professionally for England, Dexter devised the storyline for "Inspector Morse: Deceived by Flight (#3.3)" (1989) in which Sergeant Lewis had to go undercover in a cricket team to investigate drug smuggling.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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...
.
Whately is known for his starring role as Neville Hope in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television comedy
Television comedy
Television comedy had a presence from the earliest days of broadcasting. Among the earliest BBC television programmes in the 1930s was Starlight, which offered a series of guests from the music hall era — singers and comedians amongst them...
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven English migrant construction workers. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf....
, his role as Dr Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
, and as Robert "Robbie" Lewis
Inspector Lewis
Robert "Robbie" Lewis is a fictional character in the Inspector Morse crime novels by Colin Dexter. The "sidekick" to Morse, Lewis is a Detective Sergeant in the Thames Valley Police, and appears in all 13 Morse novels. In the television adaptation, Inspector Morse, he is played by Kevin Whately...
in the crime dramas
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
and Lewis.
Biography
Whately is from HumshaughHumshaugh
Humshaugh is a parish in Northumberland, England. This small village is just north of Chollerford, which is located near Chesters Fort on Hadrian's Wall and is about 21 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The village of Humshaugh lies just off the military road running from Newcastle to Carlisle...
, near Hexham
Hexham
Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. His mother, Mary (née Pickering-), was a teacher and his father, Richard, was a Commander in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. His maternal grandmother, Doris Phillips, was a professional concert singer and his great-great-grandfather, Richard Whately
Richard Whately
Richard Whately was an English rhetorician, logician, economist, and theologian who also served as the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.-Life and times:...
, was Anglican Archbishop of Dublin
Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)
The Archbishop of Dublin is the title of the senior cleric who presides over the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland...
. The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 2 March 2009, also revealed that Whately is a descendant, on his paternal side, of Thomas Whately
Thomas Whately
Thomas Whately , an English politician and writer, was a Member of Parliament , who served as Commissioner on the Board of Trade, as Secretary to the Treasury under Lord Grenville, and as Under- secretary of State under Lord North . As an M.P...
of Nonsuch Park
Nonsuch Park
Nonsuch Park is a public park between Stoneleigh, North Cheam, Cheam, and Ewell and the last surviving part of the Little Park of Nonsuch, a deer hunting park established by Henry VIII of England surrounding the former Nonsuch Palace...
, a leading London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
merchant, English politician and writer who became a director of the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
, and of Major Robert Thompson, a pioneer tobacco plantation owner in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
who was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
cause at the time of the English Commonwealth.
Whately was educated at Barnard Castle School
Barnard Castle School
Barnard Castle School , is a co-educational independent day and boarding school situated in the market town of Barnard Castle, in the North East of England. It was founded in 1883 as the North Eastern County School, with the name changed to the current one in 1924, and to this day is generally...
, and studied drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
. His brother, Frank, is a drama lecturer at a London university. Before going professional, Whately was an amateur actor at the People's Theatre
The People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne
The People's Theatre is a theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.The People's Theatre originated from the Newcastle branch of the former British Socialist Party, who started to stage dramatic productions in 1911 in order to raise money to fund their political activities. One of the theatre's key...
, Newcastle upon Tyne during the 1970s.
Career
Before turning to professional acting Whately began his working life as a folk singerFolk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
, and still plays guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, performing for charity concerts: Along with other Auf Wiedersehen, Pet stars, he makes an appearance at the biennial benefit concert Sunday for Sammy in Newcastle. Before becoming an actor, he started training as an accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
.
His acting career includes several stage plays, among them an adaptation of Twelve Angry Men and film appearances in The Return of the Soldier
The Return of the Soldier (film)
The Return of the Soldier is a 1982 British film starring Alan Bates as Baldry and co-starring Julie Christie, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson, and Ann-Margret about a shell-shocked officer's return from the First World War....
, The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
, Paranoid and Purely Belter
Purely Belter
Purely Belter is a 2000 British comedy drama film directed by Mark Herman about two teenagers trying to get money, by any means necessary, in order to get season tickets for home games played by the FA Premier League football team Newcastle United.It is based on the novel The Season Ticket by...
.
Whately's television appearances include episodes of Shoestring, Angels
Angels (TV series)
Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
, Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, Strangers
Strangers (TV series)
Strangers was a UK police drama that appeared on ITV between 1978 and 1982.After the success of the TV series The XYY Man, adapted from books by Kenneth Royce, Granada TV devised a new series to feature the regular characters of Detective Sergeant George Bulman and his assistant Detective...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, Shackleton
Shackleton (film)
Shackleton is a 2002 British television film broadcast in two parts by Channel 4. Directed by Charles Sturridge, the cast includes Kenneth Branagh in the title role, along with Kevin McNally, Lorcan Cranitch, Embeth Davidtz, Danny Webb and Phoebe Nicholls as Lady Shackleton. It was filmed in the...
, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven English migrant construction workers. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf....
, Marple
Marple (TV series)
Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple and other murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. It is also known as Agatha Christie's Marple. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to third series, until her retirement from the role. She was replaced...
, Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
, Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...
, Look and Read
Look and Read
Look and Read is a BBC television programme for primary schools, aimed at improving children's literacy skills. The programme presents fictional stories in a serial format, the first of which was broadcast in 1967 and the most recent in 2004, making it the longest running nationally broadcast...
, You Must Be The Husband
You Must Be The Husband
You Must Be the Husband is a British comedy television series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor in the title role of Tom Hammond, and Diane Keen as his wife, Alice Hammond, with Sheila Steafel as Alice's literary agent, Miranda Shaw....
, B&B
B&B (TV series)
B&B was a one off season English television programme, aired in 1992, following the lives of a father and daughter and their struggle to get their newly established BnB business working....
, Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
, Skallagrigg, The Broker's Man, Murder in Mind, 2003 Comic Relief Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Lewis, New Tricks, Who Gets the Dog?
Who Gets the Dog? (ITV drama)
Who Gets the Dog? is a one-off British television comedy drama starring Kevin Whately, Alison Steadman, Stephen Mangan and Emma Pierson. It was written by Guy Hibbert and directed by Nicholas Renton and premieres on ITV on Sunday 2 December 2007 at 9pm....
, The Children
The Children (2008 miniseries)
The Children is a three part 2008 drama miniseries written by Lucy Gannon and produced for ITV. It stars Lesley Sharp, Geraldine Somerville and Kevin Whately, and premiered on ITV at 9pm on Monday 1 September, 2008....
and Silent Cry (film)
Silent Cry (film)
Silent Cry is a British thriller film directed by Julian Richards, starring Emily Woof, Douglas Henshall, Frank Finlay, Clive Russell, Kevin Whately, Craig Kelly and released in 2003.- Synopsis :...
. Whately provided one of the voices for the English language version of the 1999 claymation Children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
Hilltop Hospital
Hilltop Hospital
Hilltop Hospital was an claymation childrens television programme made in 1999. It consisted of 52 ten minute shorts. The series was directed by Pascal Le Nôtre and produced in English, French , German and Dutch . The series was adapted from a series of books by Nicholas Allan of the same name...
. He has also appeared in an advert for Water Aid doing a voice over.
Perhaps his most memorable television appearances were as Detective Sergeant Lewis, the down-to-earth complement to the snobbishly intellectual Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse is a fictional character in the eponymous series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33-episode 1987–2000 television adaptation of the same name, in which the character was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID officer with the Thames Valley...
. He reprised the role in the spin-off series Lewis, in which Lewis returns to Oxford as full Inspector. With his new partner, the Cambridge-educated Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (Laurence Fox
Laurence Fox
Laurence Fox is an English actor best known for his leading role as Detective Sergeant James Hathaway in the British TV drama series Lewis...
), Inspector Lewis solves murder mysteries while trying to rebuild his life after his wife's sudden death in a road accident, and to gain recognition from his sceptical new boss.
Richard Marson's book celebrating fifty years of Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
comments that Whately auditioned as a presenter for the show in 1980 but lost out to Peter Duncan
Peter Duncan (actor)
Peter Duncan is a British actor and television presenter, best known as a former presenter of Blue Peter and for his later family travel documentaries.-Education:...
.
Personal life
Whately lives close to Milton KeynesMilton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, with his wife actress Madelaine Newton
Madelaine Newton
Madelaine Newton is a British actress best known for her portrayal of Dolly in 1970s BBC television drama When the Boat Comes In. She is married to actor Kevin Whately, with whom she has two children....
, who starred in 1970s BBC drama When the Boat Comes In
When the Boat Comes In
When the Boat Comes In is a British television period-drama produced by the BBC between 1976 and 1981.The series stars James Bolam as Jack Ford, a First World War veteran who returns to his poverty-stricken town of Gallowshield in the North East of England in the 1920s.The memorable traditional...
. The couple have two children: Catherine "Kitty" Whately, born in 1983, who appeared as Kevin's on-screen daughter in the series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven English migrant construction workers. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf....
for the first two seasons; and Kieran, born in 1985. Kitty also appeared as a contestant on the game show Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal (UK game show)
Deal or No Deal is the United Kingdom version of the Endemol game show format Deal or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds. 1,758 shows have been aired...
in February 2011, playing her game on 24 February, in which she revealed she was now working as an opera singer, as well as being a postgraduate student, and that she has one daughter, Ivy, born on 11 December 2006 (inspiring her to use 18, 12, 6, as her first box numbers).
Whately enjoys music; he listens to Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
and Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
. He supports Burnley F.C
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
on the football field and as a cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er admitted to Inspector Morse writer Colin Dexter
Colin Dexter
Norman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...
that he would like to have played cricket professionally for England, Dexter devised the storyline for "Inspector Morse: Deceived by Flight (#3.3)" (1989) in which Sergeant Lewis had to go undercover in a cricket team to investigate drug smuggling.