Roy Barraclough
Encyclopedia
Roy Barraclough MBE
(born 12 July 1935, Preston, Lancashire, England
) is a comic actor
. He is best known for his role as the shifty, lugubrious landlord of the Rovers Return, Alec Gilroy
in the long-running British
TV soap
Coronation Street
(1972, 1975, 1986–1992, 1995, 1996–1998) where he formed an on-screen partnership with Bet Lynch
(Julie Goodyear
).
.
He later joined the repertory company at Stoke (appearing alongside Ben Kingsley
) and then Oldham in 1966, appearing alongside Barbara Knox
, Anne Kirkbride
and others. Whilst at Oldham he made his first TV appearances for Granada Television, including Coronation Street
in 1964.
In 1969 he was cast as Harry Everitt in Yorkshire Television
's first soap opera Castle Haven with Kathy Staff
as his on-screen wife. Although the soap only lasted a year, Barraclough became a regular guest actor on YTV shows. It was whilst having lunch in the canteen there that he was asked to stand in for a missing actor on the first series of the Les Dawson show. It was the start of a working relationship which would last many years both at YTV and the BBC.
Throughout the 1970s he formed a partnership with comedian
Les Dawson
. They played two grotesque old ladies '...of a certain age...', Dawson playing Ada Shufflebotham, Barraclough playing Cissy, the more 'refined' of the two.
Barraclough made occasional appearances in Coronation Street in the 1970s, playing the rather sleazy Alec Gilroy
, theatrical agent to night club singer Rita Littlewood
. He returned on a permanent basis in 1986 and a marriage to Bet Lynch
was included in his character's narrative. After several departures and comebacks, Barraclough finally left Coronation Street at the end of 1998.
Barraclough was to later appear in a sitcom, Mother's Ruin, in which he played a bachelor dominated by his belligerent mother (Dora Bryan
); the show was not a success. He made a guest appearance in the 2005 Last of the Summer Wine
episode 'Has Anyone Seen A Peruvian Wart?' playing opposite his friend Kathy Staff
, and has appeared in a variety of TV shows including Casualty
, Peak Practice
, Funland
, and recorded a guest role in BBC1's Billy Goat.
On stage he has appeared in everything from musicals (The Boy Friend
and Gypsy
) to high drama (Death of a Salesman
and A Different Way Home) and Christmas shows and pantomimes. He created the role of Santa in the lavish stage musical Santa Claus, which he reprised for several Christmases. He is the recipient of three Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards including the Reader's Award, a Liverpool Echo Theatre Award and a Royal Television Society
Award.
In the 2006 New Year's Honours List, Barraclough was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
for services to drama and to charity in the North West.
His most recent job was playing the vicar in BBC 1 drama All the Small Things.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 12 July 1935, Preston, Lancashire, England
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...
) is a comic 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...
. He is best known for his role as the shifty, lugubrious landlord of the Rovers Return, Alec Gilroy
Alec Gilroy
Alexander "Alec" Gilroy is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, played by Roy Barraclough. The character made several appearances in the show as a small-time talent agent, the first in 1972, and later as a series regular from 1986 to 1992. He reappeared briefly in...
in the long-running 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...
TV soap
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
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...
(1972, 1975, 1986–1992, 1995, 1996–1998) where he formed an on-screen partnership with Bet Lynch
Bet Lynch
Elizabeth Theresa "Bet" Lynch is a fictional character from the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. The character is no longer part of current storylines. Portrayed by actress Julie Goodyear the character first appears onscreen during the episode airing on 23 May 1966. The character...
(Julie Goodyear
Julie Goodyear
Julie Goodyear, MBE is an English television actress and media personality, best known for playing the long-running role of pub landlady Bet Lynch on British soap opera Coronation Street.-Biography:...
).
Career
Roy Barraclough began his career as a draughtsman, taking time off to work as an entertainer in a holiday camp on the Isle of Wight. Combining his day job with local amateur theatre for several years he was eventually offered a full-time acting contract by legendary repertory theatre producer Nita Valerie with her company in Huddersfield. Barraclough regularly appeared on stage and at times played piano in the pit, most notably for comedienne Hylda BakerHylda Baker
Hylda Baker was a British comedienne, actress and music hall star.-Early life and career:Baker was born in Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, the first of seven children. Her father, Harold Baker, was a painter and signwriter, who also worked part-time in the music halls as a comedian...
.
He later joined the repertory company at Stoke (appearing alongside Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
) and then Oldham in 1966, appearing alongside Barbara Knox
Barbara Knox
Barbara Knox, MBE , is an English actress, best known for playing Rita Sullivan in the television soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:Knox was born in Oldham, Lancashire...
, Anne Kirkbride
Anne Kirkbride
Anne Kirkbride is an English actress, best known for her long-running role as Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street which she has played for thirty-nine years.-Coronation Street:...
and others. Whilst at Oldham he made his first TV appearances for Granada Television, including 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...
in 1964.
In 1969 he was cast as Harry Everitt in Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
's first soap opera Castle Haven with Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff was an English actress, well known for her work on British television...
as his on-screen wife. Although the soap only lasted a year, Barraclough became a regular guest actor on YTV shows. It was whilst having lunch in the canteen there that he was asked to stand in for a missing actor on the first series of the Les Dawson show. It was the start of a working relationship which would last many years both at YTV and the BBC.
Throughout the 1970s he formed a partnership with comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Les Dawson
Les Dawson
Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...
. They played two grotesque old ladies '...of a certain age...', Dawson playing Ada Shufflebotham, Barraclough playing Cissy, the more 'refined' of the two.
Barraclough made occasional appearances in Coronation Street in the 1970s, playing the rather sleazy Alec Gilroy
Alec Gilroy
Alexander "Alec" Gilroy is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, played by Roy Barraclough. The character made several appearances in the show as a small-time talent agent, the first in 1972, and later as a series regular from 1986 to 1992. He reappeared briefly in...
, theatrical agent to night club singer Rita Littlewood
Rita Sullivan
Rita Sullivan is a long-standing character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street...
. He returned on a permanent basis in 1986 and a marriage to Bet Lynch
Bet Lynch
Elizabeth Theresa "Bet" Lynch is a fictional character from the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. The character is no longer part of current storylines. Portrayed by actress Julie Goodyear the character first appears onscreen during the episode airing on 23 May 1966. The character...
was included in his character's narrative. After several departures and comebacks, Barraclough finally left Coronation Street at the end of 1998.
Barraclough was to later appear in a sitcom, Mother's Ruin, in which he played a bachelor dominated by his belligerent mother (Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
); the show was not a success. He made a guest appearance in the 2005 Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
episode 'Has Anyone Seen A Peruvian Wart?' playing opposite his friend Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff was an English actress, well known for her work on British television...
, and has appeared in a variety of TV shows including 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...
, 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...
, Funland
Funland
Funland is a comedy / thriller serial, produced by the BBC that was first screened from Sunday 23 October 2005 to Monday 7 November 2005 , on the digital channel BBC Three...
, and recorded a guest role in BBC1's Billy Goat.
On stage he has appeared in everything from musicals (The Boy Friend
The Boy Friend
The Boy Friend is a musical by Sandy Wilson. The musical's original 1954 London production ran for 2,078 performances, making it briefly the third-longest running musical in West End or Broadway history until it was surpassed by Salad Days...
and Gypsy
Gypsy: A Musical Fable
Gypsy is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business...
) to high drama (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...
and A Different Way Home) and Christmas shows and pantomimes. He created the role of Santa in the lavish stage musical Santa Claus, which he reprised for several Christmases. He is the recipient of three Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards including the Reader's Award, a Liverpool Echo Theatre Award and a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Award.
In the 2006 New Year's Honours List, Barraclough was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for services to drama and to charity in the North West.
His most recent job was playing the vicar in BBC 1 drama All the Small Things.