Anthony Andrews

Did you know?!

1. A role that slipped away

   In June 1977, Andrews won the role of Bodie in the ITV series The Professionals. After three days of filming, creator and producer Brian Clemens decided the chemistry between Andrews and Martin Shaw, who played Doyle, was not working, so Lewis Collins took over.

2. First role

   Andrews began dancing lessons when he was eight, and his first stage role was the White Rabbit in a theatrical version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

3. A change of course

   Andrews had several jobs before acting, among them catering, farming and journalism. He then got a position at the Chichester Theatre, working as an assistant stage manager and later a stand-in producer.

4. First role

   Andrews tried out in 1968 for Alan Bennett's play Forty Years On, a production in which John Gielgud played a British public school headmaster during the World War I period. Andrews won the part of Skinner, one of 20 schoolboys.

5. Beyond film

   Andrews provided narration for a BBC Radio 2 special marking the 21st anniversary of Cameron Mackintosh's musical Les Misérables. The West End cast at the time sang it at London's Mermaid Theatre on Sunday 8 October 2006.