McARDLE, John 1949-

PERSONAL: Born August 16, 1949, in Liverpool, England; son of John Joseph and Edeth (Webster) McArdle; married Kathy Jamieson (second marriage; an actress and teacher); children: first marriage: Justin (some sources say Jason); second marriage: Kate, Joseph. Education: Attended St. Bede's Secondary Modern School, and E15 Acting School, Laughton Essex, England.

ADDRESSES: Home—Lancashire, England. Agent— Denis Lyne Agency, 108 Leonard St., London EC2A 4RH, England.

CAREER: Actor and screenwriter. Actor in television series, including (as Billy Corkhill) Brookside, 1985-90; (as Charlie Woods) And the Beat Goes On, 1996; (as Eddie Gallagher) Born to Run, 1997; (as Tonbridge) The Cazalets, 2001; and (as Inspector Jim Oulton) Merseybeat, British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Channel 1, 2001—.

Actor in television miniseries, including (as Dr. Daniel Laing) Out of Hours, BBC Channel 1, 1998; (as Steve Norris) Metropolis, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2000; and (as Roy Lavery) My Fragile Heart, 2000.

Actor in made-for-television movies, including (as Harry) Bambino Mio (also known as Mon enfant), 1994; (as Malc Freeman) Rich Deceiver, 1995; (as Spindor) Throwaways, 1996; and (as Major Ron Foster) The Place of the Dead, 1996. Actor in television specials, including Frankie and Johnnie, 1985; (as Paul Garnet) Gallowglass, PBS, 1995; and (as D.C.S. Ballinger) Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment, PBS, 1997.

Actor in films, including (as Dilke) Skallagrigg, 1994; (as Pyesek) Janice Beard: 45 Words Per Minute, 1999; and (as headmaster) There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, 2000. Has also appeared in BBC radio plays. Worked as a scaffolder in Australia as a young adult.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best actor award, Royal Television Society Midland Centre, 2002, for Merseybeat.

WRITINGS:

(And director) The Duke (screenplay), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: John McArdle is one of the more recognizable faces in British dramatic television. He appeared on the British soap opera Brookside for five years, and since 2001 he has played a detective, opposite his real-life wife, actress Kathy Jamieson, on the award-winning police drama Merseybeat. Coincidently, both of these shows are set in McArdle's native Liverpool.

In 1998 McArdle teamed up with his son from his first marriage, Justin McArdle, to create a short film for children set in 1950s Liverpool, called The Duke. This film stars Tony Booth, the father-in-law of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as the grandfather of a young boy named Jack who sees American Western film star John Wayne in a movie and notices the actor's resemblance to his grandfather. With a little help from Booth's character, Jack becomes convinced that his grandfather really is John Wayne.

McArdle's own grandfather, Tom Webster, was a similar sort of spirit. "He was a wonderful storyteller and he told his tales so well that I believed them," McArdle told Olivia Convey of the Edinburgh, Scotland Evening News. "He convinced me that the Cammell Laird shipyard on the Mersey [River, across from Liverpool] was really New York. It was all lit up at night and for ages I really did think that Birkenhead [the port town where the Cammell Laird shipyard is located] was America." McArdle continued, "It was from him that I got one of the best ever pieces of advice—never grown up, keep a bit of the child in you all the time."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 33, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

periodicals

Birmingham Evening Mail (Birmingham, England), November 18, 2002, Graham Young, "Leslie Steps out on Beat, " p. 17.

Daily Post (Liverpool, England), September 8, 2001, Neil Bonner, "Overheard Sibrydion," p. 4.

Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland), October 19, 1996, Aidan Smith, "I Had the Prime of My Life in Bed with Sexy Helen," p. 22; November 2, 2002, Paul English, "Breaking up Isn't Too Hard to Do for John," p. 13.

Evening News (Edinburgh, Scotland), June 16, 2001, Olivia Convey, "Brookside It Is Not," p. 15.

Evening Times (Glasgow, Scotland), June 6, 1998, Brian Beacom, "Good Times after Bad: Jail Ordeal Was Catalyst for Career in Acting," p. 29.

Guardian (London, England), January 16, 1997, Suri Krishnamma, "Bungle in the Jungle."

Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England), February 16, 2002, "Actor John Faces His Toughest Challenge Yet," p. 9; April 22, 2002, "John's Peak of Fitness," p. 5; June 6, 2002, "Acting's a Bit of a Bobby's Job, John," p. 8; August 15, 2002, "Without Nails and Sighing," p. 12; August 19, 2002, "My Screen Split with Real Wife," p. 17; October 31, 2002, "It's Grim Blue Line for John," p. 8; November 19, 2002, Claire Stoker, review of Merseybeat, p. 19; February 20, 2003, Catherine Jones, "Beating at Home Violence for Good," p. 14.

Mirror (London, England), October 19, 1996, Richard Wallace, "Prime of His Life," p. 7; June 30, 2001, Phil Tusler, "Interview: John McArdle: My Horrific Prison Ordeal," p. 12.

News Letter (Belfast, Northern Ireland), June 16, 2001, Olivia Convey, "Shaking off the Image of Billy Brookside," p. 28.

New Statesman, May 22, 1998, Andrew Billen, review of Out of Hours, pp. 49-50.

People, February 10, 1997, Terry Kelleher, review of Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement, p. 17.

Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh, Scotland), Tom Lappin, review of Out of Hours, p. S53.

Sun (London, England), September 16, 2000, Graham Whitcroft, interview with McArdle, p. 8; July 28, 2001, Jon Peake, "Counting His Coppers," p. 15.

Sunday Mirror (London, England), August 30, 1998, "Booth's Home on the Range," p. 11.

Times (London, England), September 11, 1999, "BBC British Short Film Festival," p. 4.

online

AtomFilms,http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/ (April 1, 2003), review of The Duke.

British Broadcasting Corporation Web site,http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (September 16, 1999), "Entertainment Stars Glitter in Film Shorts"; (March 16, 2003), "Drama Faces: John McArdle," "Mersey-beat: Inspector Jim Oulton (John McArdle)."

Constellation Change Screen Dance Festival,http://www.constellation-change.com/ (April 1, 2003), "Justin McArdle (Director)."*