William Ilkley

William trained at Rose Bruford on the B.A. (Hons) Theatre Arts Course and his regional theatre credits include Bolton Octagon, Manchester Royal Exchange, Newcastle Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Theatre Clwyd, Watford Palace, Harrogate Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Derby Playhouse, Leicester Haymarket, York Theatre Royal and The West Yorkshire Playhouse.

William was a leading actor with John Godbers' Hull Truck Theatre Company from 1988 to 2001 and for Hull Truck he appeared as Arthur in UP 'N' UNDER, Lucky Eric in BOUNCERS, Jack in SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN, Jack in HAPPY JACK and Bob in THE NEW OFFICE PARTY.

West End and touring Theatre includes creating the role of Harry Hickman in the award-winning SALT OF THE EARTH for the Edinburgh Festival, National Tour, Donmar Warehouse and the Swan Theatre RSC Stratford; Malvolio in TWELFTH NIGHT for the Edinburgh Festival, National Tour and Donmar Warehouse; Frank in UP 'N' UNDER in the West End, Morris in the National Tour of LUCKY SODS, Ken Blake in both National Tours of GYM AND TONIC, Judd in the 21st Anniversary National Tour of BOUNCERS and Bob Lawrence in the National Tours of UNLEASHED again for John Godber and Hull Truck Theatre Company.

In October 1999 he had the privilege of appearing at the Olivier Theatre in the Royal National Theatre in BOUNCERS as part of the National Theatre's celebration of the last century's 100 greatest writers and in the summer of 2000 created and played the roles of Stan/Malc and Fred in SEASONS IN THE SUN, by John Godber, a commission by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and was seen in the Autumn 2000 tour and West End 2001 run of BOUNCERS at The Whitehall Theatre, and also the 2002 major National Tour with Gareth Hale and Tim Vincent. His most recent theatre was again at the West Yorkshire Playhouse as Jack in SCUFFER by Mark Catley.

William has over seventy TV credits including HARRY'S GAME, DOCTOR WHO, HOWARDS WAY, ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, THE BILL (4 times!), LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE, HEARTBEAT (twice!), EMMERDALE, PIGEON SUMMER, THE WARD, CORONATION STREET, WING AND A PRAYER, GOLD, HETTY WAINTHROP INVESTIGATES, CASUALTY (twice!), JUDGE JOHN DEED, DALZIEL & PASCOE, HOLBY CITY, THE LAST DETECTIVE, EASTENDERS, BATTLEFIELD BRITAIN, DOCTORS (twice!), FAMILY AFFAIRS, BREAKING THE CHAINS, VINCENT, CLASS OF 76, THIN ICE, MIDSOMER MURDERS and THE ROYAL.

Film credits include the BBC Screen 2 films DEFROSTING THE FRIDGE with Joe Don Baker and SMALL ZONES with Sean Bean. The BBC Screen 1 Film THE FIX, also SHIPWRECKED with Gabriel Byrne and THE WHIPPING BOY with George C Scott for Walt Disney Productions; NIGHT OF THE FOX with George Peppard and Michael York; PAPER MARRIAGE with Gary Kemp and Rita Tushingham and BETWEEN TWO WOMEN and THE JEALOUS GOD for North Country Pictures. In 2004 he played the lead role of Malc Spencer in THUNDER ROAD, a film for the BBC and in 2007 worked with Michael Caine and Leslie Phillips in the film IS THERE ANYBODY THERE. In Spring 2009 he will be seen as the Police Commander in Richard Curtis's new movie THE BOAT THAT ROCKED which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy.

William owns and runs the company DRAMART PRODUCTIONS LTD which specialises in running performance arts workshop courses for schools and colleges, with courses taking place in Spain, Greece, Italy, South Africa, USA, Stratford and London.

You can visit the William Ilkley website at: www.williamilkley.com.

DRAMART PRODUCTIONS LTD
'Working with the Professionals'

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