Alun Armstrong's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) New Tricks (UK) Brian Lane Little Dorrit (UK) Jeremiah Fl… Bleak House (UK) Bucket Garrow's Law: Tales From The Old Bailey (UK) John Southo… A Passionate Woman (UK) Donald - 19… Father Brown (UK) Joe Oliver Twist (UK) (1999) Mr Fleming Bedtime (UK) Neil Henshaw Enemy at the Door (UK) Louis Mendoza Get Lost! (UK) Neville Kea… Goodbye Cruel World (UK) Roy Grade

Main Movie Roles 2006 - Eragon 2005 - Oliver Twist 2004 - Millions 2004 - Van Helsing 2003 - Paradise Found 2003 - It's All About Love 2001 - The Mummy Returns 2000 - Proof of Life 1999 - Sleepy Hollow 1999 - Onegin 1997 - The Saint 1995 - Braveheart 1995 - An Awfully Big Adventure 1994 - Black Beauty 1992 - Patriot Games 1992 - Split Second 1990 - White Hunter Black Heart 1983 - Krull 1981 - The French Lieutenant's Woman 1977 - The Duellists 1977 - A Bridge Too Far 1971 - Get Carter

BIOGRAPHY:

Alun Armstrong (born 17 July 1946) is an English actor and singer recently popular for his role as Brian Lane in New Tricks.

Career

Film
Armstrong made his debut in the 1971 film Get Carter,[1] and has appeared in several films, although in this medium he has usually played supporting or minor roles. He has appeared in Sleepy Hollow, Braveheart, The Mummy Returns, Eragon and Van Helsing among other things. He appeared as Torquil, the bandit leader who agrees to help Colwyn defeat the evil Slayers, in the 1983 movie Krull.

Television
On television, Armstrong has played the character of Brian Lane in the highly popular BBC drama New Tricks where he was reunited with James Bolam, with whom he appeared in an episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? called "Conduct Unbecoming" and the feature film The Likely Lads, in which he played Terry's milkman. Armstrong also starred in the 1981, Yorkshire Television drama, Get Lost!, which inspired the later better known drama, The Beiderbecke Affair, in which James Bolam played Armstrong's counterpart.
He also played Austin Donohue in the 1996 BBC drama series Our Friends in the North, a character based on the politician T. Dan Smith, Inspector Bucket in the 2005 BBC adaptation of Bleak House and Mr Evans in Carrie's War. In 2001, Armstrong played George Mole in the television series Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years In 2003, Armstrong starred alongside his son, Joe Armstrong, in the ITV1 drama Between the Sheets.
In 2009, he appeared as Jeremiah Flintwinch in Little Dorrit. Armstrong also played the character of John Southouse in the BBC period legal drama Garrow's Law in the same year.

Theatre
Armstrong has worked regularly in British stage and television productions, such as Granada Television's The Stars Look Down (1975).
Armstrong spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford upon Avon and London, including the roles of Mr Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, Petruchio in The Taming of The Shrew, Leontes in The Winter's Tale, Barabas in The Jew of Malta and Monsieur Thénardier in the original cast of Les Misérables. In 2006, he returned to the London stage to star in Trevor Nunn's new production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National Theatre.
Later in 2006 he starred as Uncle Garrow in the film Eragon. He has been nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award six times and won in 1994, for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance of Sweeney Todd in the musical of the same name.
Armstrong is well known for his performance as Thénardier in the original London production of Les Misérables in October 1985 with Susan Jane Tanner alongside him as Mme. Thénardier, for which he was also nominated for a Laurence Oliver Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He reprised this role in Les Misérables - The Dream Cast in Concert, at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1995. He also appeared with the rest of the original 1985 cast in the 25th Anniversary concert.

Personal life
He is the father of actor Joe Armstrong, who found fame in the current BBC version of Robin Hood.

Filmography

Get Carter (1971)
The 14 (1973)
The Likely Lads (1976)
The Duellists (1977)
Our Day Out (1977)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Enemy at the Door (1978)
Measure for Measure (1979)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
Krull (1983)
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1985)
Number 27 (1988)
Djavolji raj (1989)
White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)
American Friends (1991)
London Kills Me (1991)
Inspector Morse - "Happy Families" (1992) (TV) as Chief Superintendent Holdsby
Blue Ice (1992)
Patriot Games (1992)
Split Second (1992)
Goggle-Eyes (1993) (TV)
Black Beauty (1994)
MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday (1994) (TV)
Les Misérables in concert (1995) (TV)
Braveheart (1995)
An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
Our Friends in the North (1996)
The Saint (1997)
Underworld (1997) (TV)
In the Red (1998) (TV)
David Copperfield (1999) (TV)
Aristocrats (1999) (TV)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
With or Without You (1999)
Onegin (1999)
G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time (1999)
This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper (2000) (TV)
Proof of Life (2000)
Challenger: Go for Launch (2000) (TV: narrated)
Extinct (2001) (TV: narrated)
The Mummy Returns (2001)
It's All About Love (2003)
Bedtime - Series 2 (2002)
Sparkhouse (2002)
Paradise Found
Carrie's War (2004)
When I'm 64 (2004)
Millions (2004)
Van Helsing (2004)
New Tricks (2004–present)
Bleak House (2005)
Oliver Twist (2005)
Eragon (2006)
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story (2007) (TV)
The Dinner Party (2007) (TV)
Little Dorrit (2008) (TV)
Garrow's Law (2009) (TV)
A Passionate Woman (2010) (TV)


TRIVIA:

• He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in Sweeney Todd at the Royal National Theatre.
• He has appeared in two versions of "Oliver Twist", and played a different role in each.
• Eye color: Blue
• Father of 'Joe Armstrong (II)' (qv). The two of them appeared in the TV series 'Between The Sheets'.
• Alun was a member of the original London cast of Cameron Mackintosh's stage production "Les Miserables" which opened in 1985.
• He attended Consett Grammar School in County Durham