Peter Alexander (English actor)
Encyclopedia
Peter Alexander is an English actor and director. He is probably best known for playing the character of Phil Pearce
in Emmerdale Farm for three years.
He holds the unusual distinction of having appeared in all the main UK-made TV soap operas of the last 25 years, including EastEnders
, Coronation Street
, Brookside
, Emmerdale
and Hollyoaks
.
He returned briefly to Emmerdale
as a different character in 2006 for the King's River House explosion plotline.
He has appeared in many national touring theatrical productions, and in recent years has directed and starred in many pantomimes.
but spent the first seven years of his life in nearby Peasedown St John
, Somerset
. He was one of five children, and his parents were May Alexandra and Thomas Henry Carlile. He attended boarding school at Woolverstone Hall School
in Suffolk
. After a spell at Chichester College
he trained in drama at the Guildford School of Acting
.
in Emmerdale Farm.
More recently he has carved out a career as a performer and director of pantomime, notably at Leeds City Varieties
theatre, Leeds and in Rochdale.
In 2008 he was employed as voice coach at Glyndebourne Festival Opera
, with Sir Peter Hall's production of Albert Herring
.
, Calderdale
, Yorkshire
. He has two children, Emily, an actress, and Nicholas, a doctor.
He is also a magistrate. He has recently been involved in relief work in Tanzania
.
Phil Pearce
Phil Pearce was a fictional character on Emmerdale Farm, played by Peter Alexander in the 1980s, beginning in 1986.Phil Pearce, a builder, left his wife, Lesley, and young daughter, Diane, to move with Sandie Merrick into Mill cottage. The Mill had been converted into a flat by the company that...
in Emmerdale Farm for three years.
He holds the unusual distinction of having appeared in all the main UK-made TV soap operas of the last 25 years, including EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, 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...
, Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
, 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...
and Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
.
He returned briefly to 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 different character in 2006 for the King's River House explosion plotline.
He has appeared in many national touring theatrical productions, and in recent years has directed and starred in many pantomimes.
Early life
He was born in Midsomer NortonMidsomer Norton
Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, north-east of Wells, north-west of Frome, and south-east of Bristol. It has a population of 10,458. Along with Radstock and Westfield it used to be part of the conurbation and large civil parish of Norton...
but spent the first seven years of his life in nearby Peasedown St John
Peasedown St John
Peasedown St John is one of the largest villages in Somerset, England. Located on a hilltop roughly south-southwest of the city of Bath, Peasedown used to be a coal mining village. When the last of the mines was shut in the 1950s it became a dormitory village for both Bath and, to a lesser...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. He was one of five children, and his parents were May Alexandra and Thomas Henry Carlile. He attended boarding school at Woolverstone Hall School
Woolverstone Hall School
In the early 1950s the London County Council obtained use of Woolverstone Hall near Ipswich, Suffolk, and some of adjoining land for the purpose of establishing a secondary grammar boarding school for London boys...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
. After a spell at Chichester College
Chichester College
Chichester College is a college of further education in Chichester, West Sussex. It has a second, campus at Brinsbury, near Pulborough and small centres in Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Worthing...
he trained in drama at the Guildford School of Acting
Guildford School of Acting
Guildford School of Acting is a drama school located in Guildford, Surrey, England. It is an affiliate of the University of Surrey and is an accredited member of the National Council for Drama Training and The Conference of Drama Schools.-Overview:...
.
Career
He has appeared in many UK TV series, notably as Phil PearcePhil Pearce
Phil Pearce was a fictional character on Emmerdale Farm, played by Peter Alexander in the 1980s, beginning in 1986.Phil Pearce, a builder, left his wife, Lesley, and young daughter, Diane, to move with Sandie Merrick into Mill cottage. The Mill had been converted into a flat by the company that...
in Emmerdale Farm.
More recently he has carved out a career as a performer and director of pantomime, notably at Leeds City Varieties
Leeds City Varieties
The Leeds City Varieties is a Grade II* listed music hall in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.It was built in 1865 as an adjunct to the White Swan Inn in Swan Street and the original interior is largely unaltered. Along with Hoxton Hall and Wilton's Music Hall , it is a rare surviving example of the...
theatre, Leeds and in Rochdale.
In 2008 he was employed as voice coach at Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
, with Sir Peter Hall's production of Albert Herring
Albert Herring
Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
.
TV and film appearances
- Premiere (1979)
- Coronation StreetCoronation StreetCoronation 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...
(1982) - MinderMinder (TV series)Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1984) - Affairs of the HeartAffairs of the HeartAffairs of the Heart is the third studio album by American pop singer Jody Watley, released in 1991 .-Track listing:#"I Want You" #"Call on Me"...
- Emmerdale Farm (1983–1986)
- All Creatures Great and Small (1990)
- Medics (1990)
- Flash Back (1991)
- SinglesSingles (TV series)Singles is a British sitcom set in a singles bar produced by Yorkshire Television with the 1984 Pilot Episode produced by Thames Television and aired for 3 series and 22 episodes on the ITV network between 1988 and 1991.- Cast :Pilot :...
(1991) - BrooksideBrooksideBrookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
(1993) - Mission Top SecretMission Top SecretMission Top Secret is an Australian TV series aired between 1992 and 1995. The pilot for the series was a 1991 telemovie of the same name.-Cast:* Jennifer Hardy as Victoria Wiggins * Andrew Shephard as Albert Wiggins...
(1994) - EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(1996) - The BillThe BillThe 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...
(1995–2000) - Doctors (2003)
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-RabbitWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-RabbitWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...
(2005) - HollyoaksHollyoaksHollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
(2006) - The Marchioness Disaster (2006)
- EmmerdaleEmmerdaleEmmerdale, 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...
(2006) - Heartbeat (1993–2007)
- The Royal TodayThe Royal TodayThe Royal Today was a British medical soap opera, a spin-off of the similarly themed drama, The Royal. The concept is that whilst The Royal is set in the late 1960s, The Royal Today featured the same hospital in the present day, with a new set of characters working in the same location...
(2008)
Theatre career
He has appeared in many theatrical productions during his acting career. Notable examples include:- Cinderella, Gracie Fields Theatre, Rochdale (2001)
- Allo Allo, national tour (2008)
- Porridge, The LowryThe LowryThe Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex situated on Pier 8 at Salford Quays, in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early-20th century painter, L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England...
Theatre, Salford (part of national tour) (2010)
Personal life
He is married to Penny Stevenson, who runs a dance school in Halifax. For more than 25 years they have lived in LuddendenfootLuddendenfoot
Luddendenfoot or Luddenden Foot is a community in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It lies along the Upper Calder Valley below the village of Luddenden, between Sowerby Bridge and Hebden Bridge.-Cultural reference and notable people:...
, Calderdale
Calderdale
The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, through which the upper part of the River Calder flows, and from which it takes its name...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. He has two children, Emily, an actress, and Nicholas, a doctor.
He is also a magistrate. He has recently been involved in relief work in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
.
External links
- http://www.peteralexander.org/Peter_Alexander/Welcome.html