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Bushy-browed, latterly bearded English actor and comedian, the son of Gordon John Alderton (1909-1969) and his wife Ivy (née Handley, 1906-2002). Having forgone early ambitions of becoming an architect, Alderton worked as a driving instructor before deciding to take up acting as a profession. In 1961, he graduated from RADA on a scholarship. This was immediately followed by his first theatrical performance with the Theatre Royal Repertory Company in York. Four years later, he debuted on the London stage in Bill Naughton's play Spring and Port Wine (his role of Harold Crompton, one of the sons, was played in the later film version by Rodney Bewes).

Alderton first came to prominence on screen as Dr. Richard Moone in the medical soap Emergency-Ward 10 (1957) (starring alongside his first wife, Jill Browne). As Britain's first twice-weekly serial, it already claimed 16 million viewers by the time Alderton joined the cast. After 1963, and for the next few years, he toiled in relatively unremarkable supporting roles in films and on television. However, near the end of the decade, he was able to make his breakthrough in the sitcom Please Sir! (1968), becoming BAFTA award-nominated as naïve, stammering novice teacher Bernard 'Privet' Hedges, assigned the school's most unruly class of sixteen-year olds. He reprised this role for the feature film of that name but eventually left the series after changes to the cast led to a decline in ratings. Please, Sir!'s less popular spin-off, The Fenn Street Gang (1971), followed the later exploits of the former students. The show was axed after two seasons.

Alderton attracted further audience attention in the BBC sitcom My Wife Next Door (1972) (opposite Hannah Gordon) and in ITV's cult period drama Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), as the moustachioed chauffeur Thomas Watkins, a character the actor himself described as "a conniving, thieving, chauvinistic baddie." The series also featured Alderton's second wife, actress Pauline Collins, with whom he went on to co-star in a succession of other TV shows, including the sitcoms No, Honestly (1974) and Thomas and Sarah (1979), as well as the bucolic drama Forever Green (1989). They also appeared together in Wodehouse Playhouse (1974), based on the 'Mr. Mulliner' short stories. Alderton, perfectly cast, essayed an assortment of wildly eccentric comic characters, including the timid curate Augustus Mulliner, the stammering George Mulliner, conjurer Mortimer Rackstraw (aka The Great Boloni), Hollywood producer Jacob Schnellenhammer, tiresome smart Alec and golf tragic Smallwood Bessemer and verbose politician Clifford Gandle.

Alderton was afforded a rare starring turn on the big screen as 1930's Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot in It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1976). He was soon back to television comedy with The Upchat Line (1977), in which he played the homeless, womanising bounder Mike Upchat, a congenital liar, who spent most of his time seeking out attractive members of the opposite sex to provide him with accommodation for the night and a warm body to lie next to. Much of the action revolved around Mike's inevitable problems with irate husbands, outraged parents or jealous boyfriends. The notion of casting Alderton as a scoundrel had been floated as early as 1969, when director Richard Lester got the nod (and the finances) from United Artists to film the exploits of George MacDonald Fraser's arch cad Harry Flashman. Lester and comedy writer Frank Muir had already earmarked Alderton to play the eponymous anti-hero, deeming him 'young, tall, athletic, a good rider and an excellent comedy actor'. Alas, a management change at United Artists caused the project to be cancelled. Muir later wrote "If ever it was a case of the right actor finding the right part and then losing it through no fault of his own with was John."

Through the eighties and nineties Alderton continued to appear in a variety of roles, including as Estragon in Waiting for Godot on stage at the National Theatre, as the headmaster of a school for maladjusted children in the film Clockwork Mice (1995) and as the overbearing, greedy rental property landlord Christopher Casby in the superb BBC Dickens adaptation of Little Dorrit (2008). He was nominated as 'supporting actor of the year' in the 25th London Film Critics Circle Awards for his role in the film Calendar Girls (2003).

He also narrated and voiced all the characters for the children's animated series Fireman Sam (1987) during the first four seasons. Alderton's final screen credit was in 2010.

Julia Deakin was born in 1952 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Hot Fuzz (2007), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Scoop (2006).

Peter Martin is an English actor (born Gainsborough) who was known in the 1980s for his TV ads for Jewsons Hardware. He played the fish shop man in First of the Summer Wine. He also played 'Charlie the moonlighting gravedigger' in the Beiderbecke Tapes.

He was in The Royle Family as Joe Carroll and played the part of Len Reynolds in ITV's Emmerdale from 2001 until the character's death on 17 May 2007.

He starred in the film Brassed Off and the television series All Creatures Great and Small and Chucklevision. He also was in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine.

He featured in Coronation Street (1960) three times in different roles.

He regularly worked small parts on Victoria Wood television programmes for over 20 years beginning in 1980 with her play Nearly a Happy Ending (1980) and ending with an appearance in an episode of dinnerladies (1998) in 2000.

This distinguished theatrical tragedienne will be remembered forever if only for the fact George Bernard Shaw wrote his classic "Saint Joan" work specifically for her. Her over six-decade career allowed for a gallery of sterling, masterful portrayals, both classic and contemporary, performing all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and both Western and Eastern Europe. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1931, when her career was not quite half over, and in 1970 was made Companion of Honor to Queen Elizabeth.

Born Agnes Sybil Thorndike on October 24, 1882 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of a minor canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was the eldest of four children. One younger brother, Frank, was killed in WWI action, a tragedy that left her father inconsolable. He himself would die a few months later. Sybil first became a concert pianist until nerve injuries in her hands quickly altered her destiny. She, at brother Russell Thorndike's suggestion, decided upon acting. Russell would later become a novelist and his sister's biographer.

Not a classic beauty by any stretch, Dame Sybil had sharp features, prominent cheek bones and a pronounced chin that gave her a rather severe look. At age 21 she and her brother began professionally in a touring company guided by actor-manager Ben Greet. She performed as Portia in a production of The Merchant of Venice in 1907 while touring in New York. The following year she met playwright George Bernard Shaw while understudying the role of Candida in a tour which was being directed by the writer himself. It was also during this tour that Sybil met and married actor Sir Lewis Casson and solidified one of the most respected personal and professional relationships the acting realm has known. She stayed with The Old Vic for five years (1914-1919) and in 1924 earned stardom as Shaw's Joan of Arc.

Sybil's film career, unlike that of her esteemed contemporary Edith Evans, fell far short of expectations. Silent films recreated some of her finest theatrical experiences, including Lady Macbeth and, of course, Joan of Arc, but she would not evolve into a film star. She was sporadically utilized in later years as a flavorful character support and played a number of queens, dowagers and old crones with equal finesse. Such classic costumed fare would include Major Barbara (1941), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), Stage Fright (1950), Gone to Earth (1950), The Lady with a Lamp (1951), Melba (1953), as Queen Victoria, and The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) in which she managed to grab focus during her scenes with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. In 1969, Sybil lent her name to the new theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, which became The Thorndike. Despite her 87 years, she performed in the new play There Was An Old Woman in its first season. It was to be her final theatrical performance. Always a healthy, vigorous woman, she died of a heart attack on June 9, 1976 at the ripe young age of 93. She was survived by four children and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Kathleen Tremaine was born on 29 September 1903 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The Umbrella (1933). She was married to John Dalton . She died on 10 November 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Bill Podmore was born on 15 August 1931 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Nearest and Dearest (1968), Coronation Street (1960) and How's Your Father? (1974). He was married to Gillian Podmore. He died on 22 January 1994 in Cheadle, Cheshire, England, UK.

Kathie Kay was born on 20 November 1918 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Billy Cotton Band Show (1956), A Christmas Night with the Stars (1958) and Remembering Summer (1959). She was married to Archie McCulloch. She died on 9 March 2005 in Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK.

Vic Feather was born in 1908 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He died on 28 July 1976 in England, UK.

Gladys Gordon was born on 22 March 1891 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Up with the Lark (1943). She died on 26 November 1961 in Tooting, London, England, UK.

Christine Foyer was born on 3 October 1952 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK.

Michael Proudfoot was born on 3 September 1954 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. Michael was a producer and director, known for Equinox (1986), Classic Cars (1991) and Which Way Up (2017). Michael died in January 2020 in Deal, Kent, England, UK.

Emma Pycroft was born in 1976 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is known for Dot the I (2003). She died on 9 April 2009 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Douglas Imbert was born on 20 December 1882 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Antique Brooch (1914). He died on 4 February 1925 in Montana, Valais, Switzerland.