Adrian Scarborough Biography

Adrian Philip Scarborough (born 1968) is an English character actor, most widely known for film roles including The King's Speech and television appearances including the sitcom Gavin & Stacey and his role as the butler Mr. Pritchard in the 2010 version of Upstairs Downstairs. He is also an accomplished theatre actor and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in 2011 for his role in the Terence Rattigan play After the Dance.

Personal life

Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, winning the Chesterton Award for Best Actor for school graduates. He lives in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and is married to Rose (née Blackshaw) with a son and a daughter.

Career

Scarborough made his big-screen debut in 1994 in The Madness of King George. His other movie appearances have included Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Vera Drake, Notes on a Scandal, The History Boys, Gosford Park, The King's Speech, and Les Misérables.

One of Scarborough's early television roles was J.G. Quiggin in the 1997 adaptation of A Dance to the Music of Time. He was also seen in the BBC series Let Them Eat Cake with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. He played "Bouffant", the gay couturier/servant/confidante to Saunder's character, the "Comte de Vache". His other appearances on television have included productions such as Cranford, the television film Into the Storm, Psychoville and in the BBC comedy series Miranda. He has appeared in two episodes of Midsomer Murders, playing separate characters in series 5 and series 10. He is also the voice of Abney in the BBC Children's Television programme Abney & Teal.

Scarborough is particularly well known for his appearances with Julia Davis in the BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey as warring married couple Pete and Dawn Sutcliffe, who are friends and neighbours of Gavin's parents in Essex. He is also identified for his role as the butler Mr. Pritchard in the BBC series Upstairs, Downstairs.

In 2012 he appeared in the ITV series Mrs Biggs with fellow Gavin & Stacey star Sheridan Smith, playing the titular character's father Bernard (the real-life father of Charmian Brent, ex-wife of Ronnie Biggs). He played a character named Kahler Jex in an episode of Doctor Who entitled 'A Town Called Mercy', which aired on 15 September 2012.

On stage, Scarborough has made frequent appearances at the Donmar, the Almeida, and in the West End and he has appeared in twenty productions for the Royal National Theatre. On 19 June 2011, he took part in The Barn Theatre presents... with Elliot Brown at the Barn Theatre, Welwyn Garden City Most recently he has appeared in Hedda Gabler at the Old Vic, again with frequent collaborator Sheridan Smith. In 2013, he played a role in Darkside, Tom Stoppard's radio drama based on Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon.

Awards

In 1993, he was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award and won the Manchester Evening News Award for his performance in The Comedy of Errors at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. In March 2011 he won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a revival of the play After the Dance by Terence Rattigan.