Roger Allam

Roger Allam
Allam in 2009
Born	(1953-10-26) 26 October 1953 Bow, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1981 – present
Spouse(s)	Rebecca Saire
Children	2 sons
Website
http://www.rogerallam.co.uk

Roger Allam (born 26 October 1953, Bow, London) is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables.

Life and career

Allam was educated at Christ's Hospital and Manchester University. His father was vicar of St Mary Woolnoth.

He has been nominated four times for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, winning twice. He has also been nominated for, and won, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He played Mercutio, in the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 1983. He has also appeared in many radio dramas for the BBC. In 2001, he starred in BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Les Misérables, as Valjean. In 2000 he played Hitler at the Royal National Theatre in David Edgar's Speer. He won an Olivier Award as Best Actor 2001, for his role as Captain Terri Denis in a revival of Privates on Parade, opening in December 2001 at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden. In November 2002 at the Comedy Theatre he co-starred with Gillian Anderson in Michael Weller's romantic comedy What the Night Is For.

In 2003, he starred as former West German federal chancellor Willy Brandt in Michael Frayn's play Democracy which opened at the Cottesloe Theatre, in the Royal National Theatre. He stayed with the show for its transfer to the West End. In December 2004 and January 2005, Allam appeared as the villainous Abanazar in a pantomime of Aladdin at the Old Vic theatre, co-starring Ian McKellen, Maureen Lipman and Sam Kelly. He reprised this role at the Old Vic, once again with Ian McKellen and Frances Barber in 2006-07.

In August 2005, Allam appeared in Blackbird by David Harrower alongside Jodhi May at the Edinburgh Festival in a production by German star director Peter Stein. The play got a transfer to the Albery Theatre in London in February 2006. Blackbird subsequently won a best new play award.

He also found time in 2006 to appear in Stephen Frears' The Queen, starring Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren, as the Queen's private secretary.

In February 2007, he performed in the 1960s farce Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre in the West End, co-starring Mark Rylance, Frances de la Tour and Tamzin Outhwaite.

In January 2007, he appeared for the first time as Peter Mannion MP in the special episode of the BBC comedy The Thick of It. He went on to reprise his role in the second special aired in July 2007 and in the extra 15 minute episode shown via the BBC red button. He has carried on with this role as a regular character in the subsequent series.

In 2008, Allam played the role of Max Reinhardt, the Salzburg Festival impresario in Michael Frayn's play Afterlife, the production staged by Michael Blakemore on the National Theatre's Lyttelton stage.

In 2009, Allam played Albin/Zaza in La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse in London.

Allam played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 at Shakespeare's Globe, in the 2010 season. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor.

In October 2010, Allam was reunitied with his former cast mates from Les Misérables in the 25th anniversary concert for a performance of "One Day More".

In April 2012 he starred as Uncle Vanya in the play by Anton Chekhov at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

From April 2013 he is starring as Prospero in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" at Shakespeares' Globe Theatre in London alongside Colin Morgan as "Ariel".

Roger Allam presentend Michael Frayn at the 2013 "Olivier Awards" with an Special Lifetime Award which was aired by ITV1.

Allam has also reteamed with Stephen Frears in Tamara Drewe, the film version of Posy Simmond's popular comic strip. He plays the crime novelist Nicholas Hardiment, who is bewitched by London journalist Tamara Drewe, played by Gemma Arterton.

In the closing chapter of his Timebends autobiography (1987) Arthur Miller writes of Allam: "To play Adrian....in the 1986 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Archbishop's Ceiling, Roger Allam gave up the leading role as Javert in the monster hit Les Misérables because he had done it over sixty times and thought my play more challenging for him at that moment of his career. Nor did he consider his decision a particularly courageous one. This is part of what a theatre culture means and it is something few New York actors would have the sense of security even to dream of doing."

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
1979	Mary Barnes	Lecturer/Angie's brother	Royal Court Theatre
1981	Twin Rivals	Subtleman/Richmore
1981	Two Gentlemen of Veronia	Outlaw
1981	Titus Andronicus	Demetrius
1981, 1983	All's Well That Ends Well	Morgan	Royal Shakespeare Theatre (1981) Martin Beck Theatre (1983)
1982	Our Friends in the North	Conrad
1982	Poppy	Lin
1983	The Charge of the Light Brigade (RSC Festival)	Terence Gawain Hackett
1983	Typhoid Mary (RSC Festival)	Dr Soper
1984	Romeo and Juliet	Mercutio
1984	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus/Oberon
1984	Richard III	Clarence
1984	Today	Victor Ellison
1984	The Party	Ford
1985	The Dream Play	The Officer
1985-1986	Les Miserables	Javert	Barbican Theatre (1985) Palace Theatre (1986)
1986	The Archbishop's Ceiling	Adrian
1986	Heresies	Pimm
1987	Measure for Measure	The Duke Vincentio
1987	Twelfth Night	Sir Toby Belch
1987	Julius Caesar	Brutus
1989	The Fairy Queen	Oberon	Aix-en-Provence Festival
1990	The Seagull	Trigorin
1990	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick
1991	Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	Jekyll
1992	Madras House	Philip Madras	Lyric Hammersmith
1992	Una Pooka	Angelo	Tricycle Theatre
1993	City of Angels	Stone	Prince of Wales Theatre
1994	Arcadia	Bernard Nightingale	Theatre Royal Haymarket
1995	The Importance of Being Earnest	Jack Worthing	Old Vic Theatre
1995	The Way of the World	Mirabell	National Theatre
1997-1998	ART	Serge(1997) Marc(1998)	Wyndham's Theatre
1996	Macbeth	Macbeth
1996	The Learned Ladies	Trissotin
1999	Summerfolk	Bassov	National Theatre
1999	Money	Henry Graves	National Theatre
1999	Troilus and Cressida	Ulysses	National Theatre
2000	The Cherry Orchard	Lopakhin	National Theatre
2000	Albert Speer	Hitler	National Theatre
2001	Privates on Parade	Terri Dennis	Donmar Warehouse
2002	What The Night Is For	Adam Penzius	Comedy Theatre
2003	The Woman in White	Performer	Sydmonton Festival
2003	Democracy	Willy Brandt	National Theatre
2004, 2005	Aladdin	Abbanazar	The Old Vic
2006	Blackbird	Ray	Albery Theatre
2006	Pravda	Lambert Le Roux	Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
2007	Boeing, Boeing	Bernard	Comedy Theatre
2007	The Giant	Leonardo da Vinci	Hampstead Theatre
2008	Afterlife	Max Reinhardt	National Theatre
2009	La Cage Aux Folles	Albin/Zaza	Playhouse Theatre
2009	God of Carnage (UK Tour)	Michel Vallon
2010	Henry IV Parts 1 & 2	Falstaff	Shakespeare's Globe
2013	The Tempest	Prospero	Shakespeare's Globe

Filmography

Roles in films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Wilt	Davz
2003	Strangers	Eric	Short film
2005	A Cock and Bull Story	Adrian
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Sir John Hamilton
2006	The Queen	Robin Janvrin
2006	V for Vendetta	Lewis Prothero
2008	Speed Racer	E.P. Arnold Royalton
2010	Tamara Drewe	Nicholas Hardiment
2011	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of Great Britain
2011	The Iron Lady	Gordon Reece
2012	The Woman in Black	Mr Bentley
2012	The Angels' Share	Thaddeus

Roles in television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Ending Up	Dr. Mainwaring	Made-for-television film
1989	The fairy queen (La reine des fées)	Oberon	Made-for-television film
1990	The Investigation: Inside a Terrorist Bombing	Charles Tremayne	Made-for-television film
1992	Shakespeare: The Animated Tales	Duke Orsino / Narrator (voice)	Television mini series; episodes The Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night
1994	Screen Two	Stephen Summerchild	Television series; episode A Landing on the Sun
1998	Heartbeat	Graham Hayes	Television series; episode Echoes of the Past
1997	Inspector Morse	Denis Cornford	Television series; episode Death Is Now My Neighbour
1998	The Creatives	Charlie Baxter	Television series
1998	Midsomer Murders	Alan Hollingsworth	Television series; episode Faithful unto Death
1999	RKO 281	Walt Disney	Made-for-television film
2002	Foyle's War	Alastair Graeme	Television series; episode Eagle Day
2003	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone	Christopher	Made-for-television film
2005	The Inspector Lynley Mysteries	Simon Featherstonehaugh	Television series; episode The Seed of Cunning
2007 - 2012	The Thick of It	Peter Mannion	Television series
2006	Spooks	Paul Millington	Television series
2008	The Curse of Steptoe	Tom Sloane	Made-for-television film
2009	The Old Guys	Ned	Television series; episode The Therapist
2009	Margaret	John Wakeham	Made-for-television film
2009	Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire	General Arcadius	Television series
2009	Ashes to Ashes	Detective Superintendent Mackintosh	Television series
2011	Game of Thrones	Magister Illyrio Mopatis	Television series
2012 - 2013	Endeavour	Chief Inspector Fred Thursday	Television film
2012	Parade's End	General Campion	Television series
2013	Sarah & Duck	Narrator	Children's Television Series
2013	The Politician's Husband	Marcus Brock	BBC Two Three Part Drama

Radio

• The King's General (1992 BBC Radio 4 adaptation) as Sir Richard Grenvile.
• The Man In The Elephant Mask (1997 BBC Radio 4 series) as Joseph Merrick.
• Cabin Pressure (2008 BBC Radio 4 series) as First Officer Douglas Richardson.
• Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management (2008 BBC Radio 4 series) as Will's godfather, Peter

References

• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/roger-allam-lear-in-waiting-8563108.html

External links

• Roger Allam fansite
• Roger Allam unofficial site
• Roger Allam at the Internet Broadway Database
• Roger Allam at the Internet Movie Database