Tony Pitts

Tony Pitts
Born	(1962-10-10) 10 October 1962 Sheffield, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, screenwriter
Years active	1981–present

Anthony Pitts (born 10 October 1962) is an English actor, most notable for playing Archie Brooks in the long-running British soap Emmerdale Farm between 1983 and 1993.

Early life

Pitts was born in Sheffield, England. His family was working-class, his parents worked as a joiner and a midwife. Pitts originally intended to become a physician but ended up working as a car mechanic in his early career. He wrote a letter to the college to get out of college classes to become an actor. His family were livid at this. During his time at Stannington College, Sheffield Barry Hines paid a visit looking for extras for his upcoming drama Looks and Smiles. Pitts was cast and soon upgraded to a bigger role in the production. He decided to follow his ambition to become an actor in 1983.

Emmerdale

In 1983, Pitts was landed in the role of loveable young rogue Archie Brooks in the British soap opera Emmerdale. Pitts was chosen for the role by Kevin Laffan, who watched Pitts portray the title character in a theatrical adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, and believed that Pitts' versatile acting ability and his strong Yorkshire accent, meant he was well suited for the role. The role was Pitts' very first role in a television series, and he first appeared on the show on 18 November 1983, and remained in the show for a total of ten years, involved in storylines that included his prison sentence in 1989 for setting fire to Seth Armstrong's property, becoming a suspect of whether or not he was the father of Elsa Feldmann's child in 1990, and his relationship with lesbian Zoe Tate in 1993.

In 1993, Pitts' character Archie was killed in the infamous Emmerdale plane crash. Pitts' last appearance on the show was on 30 December 1993.

Other work

During his time away from Emmerdale, Pitts had notable guest appearances in shows including Casualty as Aidan Phillips in 1996, EastEnders as Cliff in 1996, The Bill as Chris Riley in 1999, The Royal as Alec Glazer in 2004 and Unforgiven in 2009 as Adam Boothroyd. Tony was the original choice for Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street, but Nigel Pivaro ended up playing the role instead. Pitts starred in Lilyhammer as Danny Croc Hammer, the brother of Duncan Hammer.

Pitts has appeared in the police drama Heartbeat on two occasions, the first time in 1998 as Carl Southall and the second time in 2005 as Brian Gilbert. In 2002, he appeared as DI Healey in the miniseries In Deep alongside Nick Berry and Stephen Tompkinson.

He is a screenwriter, as well as an actor.

Pitts appeared in Scott & Bailey on ITV1/ITV1HD as Adrian Scott (the husband of Lesley Sharp's character, DC Janet Scott). He also had a small role in the 2012 film War Horse. In 2012 Pitts starred in the third episode of Dirk Gently as Robbie Glover. In 2012 he also appeared as the Chief Superintendent in the Sherlock episode "The Reichenbach Falls". In 2013 he appeared as Sergeant Moss in the BBC drama series Peaky Blinders. Pitts played Captain Patero in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016. He also appeared as Detective Chief Superintendent Les Hargreaves in the 2014 second series of BBC's Line of Duty, made an appearance in the series finale of series four in 2017, and then appeared in series five in 2019. From 2017 he appeared in two seasons of the series Jamestown as Edgar Massinger. Pitts also appeared in Wild Bill on ITV in 2019.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Looks and Smiles	Alan Wright
2003	Johnny Vegas: Who's Ready For Ice Cream		Paramount
2011	Powder	Roger
2011	War Horse	Sgt. Martin
2012	When the Lights Went Out	Hilary Barnes
2014	Hyena	Keith
2016	Triple 9	Major Crimes Detective
2016	Away	Col
2016	Rogue One	Captain Pterro
2017	Funny Cow	Bob
2017	Journeyman	Richie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983–1993	Emmerdale	Archie Brooks	Series regular
1996	Casualty	Aidan Phillips
1996	EastEnders	Cliff
1998	Heartbeat	Carl Southall
1999	The Bill	Chris Riley
2002	In Deep	DI Healey
2004	The Royal	Alec Glazer
2005	Heartbeat	Brian Gilbert
2009	Unforgiven	Adam Boothroyd
2011–2013	Scott & Bailey	Adrian Scott	Series 1-3
2012	Dirk Gently	Robbie Glover	Episode 3
2012	Sherlock	Chief Superintendent	Episode: "The Reichenbach Falls"
2013-2017	Peaky Blinders	Sergeant Moss
2014–2015	My Mad Fat Diary	Chloe's Dad	Series 2, 3
2014–2019	Line of Duty	DCS Lester Hargreaves	Series 2, 4, 5
2017–2018	Jamestown	Edgar Massinger
2020	Roadkill	Mick 'the Mouth' Murray
2020-	All Creatures Great and Small (2020)	Richard Alderson	Series on PBS Masterpiece

Writing/Directing Credits

Year	Title	Company and Format	Role	Cast	Nominations/Wins
2002	Night Class	Radio 4 Comedy Series 6x30 mins episodes	Creator & Co-writer	Johnny Vegas, Rebecca Front, Nicola Stephenson, Tony Pitts, Tony Burgess, Lyndsey Marshal, Gwyneth Powell, Christian Knowles
2003	Johnny Vegas: Who’s Ready For Ice Cream?	Paramount Video	Writer	Johnny Vegas, Tony Pitts, Tony Burgess, Adrian Manfred Director  - Stewart Lee
2005	18 Stone of Idiot	Channel 4 6hrs Entertainment	Writer & Performer	Guest Include: Elvis Costello, Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans, David Soul, Huey Morgan	NOMINATED- Golden Rose of Montreal
2009	The Gemma Factor	BBC 6x30min episode sitcom	Writer/Actor	Gwyneth Powell, Angus Barnett, Philip McGinley, Ross Adams, Claire King, Tony Pitts
2012	Shedtown - Series 1	Radio 4 Comedy Series 6x35 mins	Writer/Director	Tony Pitts, Kevin Eldon, Johnny Vegas, Suranne Jones, Shaun Dooley, Ronni Ancona, Emma Fryer, Adrian Manfredi, Caron May Carly, Jessica Knappett, James Quinn, Warren Brown
2012	On It	Radio 4 Afternoon play	Writer/Director	Tony Pitts, Adam Gillen, Maxine Peake, Joanne Mitchell, Gwyneth Powell	WON - BBC Best Audio Drama (Single Play) 2013 WON - Sony Gold at the Sony Awards 2012 (Best Radio Drama)
2013	Shedtown - Series 2	Radio 4  Comedy Series 6x35 mins	Writer/Director	Tony Pitts, Stephen Mangan, Ronni Ancona, Johnny Vegas, Emma Fryer, Adrian Manfredi, Rosina Carbone, Shaun Dooley, James Quinn, Warren Brown, Eleanor Samson, Maxine Peake
2013	Shedtown - Series 3	Radio 4 Comedy Series 6x35 mins	Writer/Director	Stephen Mangan, Tony Pitts, Warren Brown, James Quinn, Shaun Keaveny, Rosina Carbone, Debra Stephenson, Seymour Mace, Emma Fryer, Neil Maskell, Juliet Oldfield, Maxine Peake
2014	Pact	Radio 4 Afternoon Play	Writer/Director	Richard Hawley, Tony Pitts, Maxine Peake, Gwyneth Powell, Dominic Brunt, Polly Maberly	WON - Bronze BBC Audio Drama Awards 2014
2015	Monster	Radio 4 Afternoon Play	Writer/Director	Neil Maskell, Sean Dooley, Richard Hawley	Nominated - BBC Audio Awards 2016, Best Audio Drama, Single Play
2018	Funny Cow	Feature Film	Writer/Producer/Actor	Maxine Peake, Stephen Graham, Paddy Considine, Tony Pitts	Nominated - BIFA Best Actress and Best Music 2018
2019	A Badge	Radio 4 Afternoon  Play	Writer/Director	Katherine Kelly (actress), Corinne Bailey Rae, Warren Brown, Kate Hardie, Isaac Whitmore, Tony Pitts, Caleb Potter Williams	Nominated - BBC Audio Awards 2020, Best Actress (Katherine Kelly)
2022	Curl Up And D.I	Podcast 6 episodes Scripted Comedy	Writer/Director	Vic Reeves, Morgana Robinson, Mark Benton, Katherine Kelly (actress), Burn Gorman, Nancy Sorrell, Jennifer Saayeng
2022	Let Her Go	Short Film	Writer/Director	Katherine Kelly (actress), Lisa Allen, Gracie Kelly
2021-Current	Three Little Words	Podcast, Biographical	Creator & Co-Presenter	With John Bishop and many special guests including Ian McKellen, Robbie Williams
2024	Classic (In development)	Feature Film	Creator Writer/Director/Producer	Sally Philips, David Morrissey, Leigh Francis, Robbie Williams, Mark Benton, Morgana Robinson, Burn Gorman

External links

• Tony Pitts at IMDb