Clive Merrison (born 15 September 1945) is an actor from Wales of film, television, stage and radio. He is best known for his long running BBC Radio portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, having played the part in all 64 episodes of the 1989–1998 series of Sherlock Holmes dramatisations, and all 16 episodes of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2002–2010). He also appeared in the original West End and Broadway productions of Alan Bennett's The History Boys, as well as the 2006 film.
Early life
Merrison trained at Rose Bruford College.
Television
Merrison has made numerous television appearances. He appeared as
Boris Savinkov the White Russian commander in the series
(1983) starring Sam Neill as Reilly. He has twice appeared in supporting roles in Doctor Who, in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and Paradise Towers (1987). He has also appeared in Crown Court (TV series) (15 episodes 1976-78 in which he played barrister Charles Banham), Yes, Prime Minister, Kit Curran, The Labours of Erica, Bergerac, Mann's Best Friends, Double First, Drop the Dead Donkey, Time Riders, Pie in the Sky, The Tomorrow People, Mortimer's Law, The Bill, Believe Nothing, Midsomer Murders (twice), Foyle's War, Lewis and The Brief. He played Bob Cratchit in a 1977 BBC adaptation of A Christmas Carol (opposite Michael Hordern as Ebenezer Scrooge), Mark Corrigan's father in the 2010 Peep Show Christmas special, and Clement Attlee in the 2012 TV movie Bert and Dickie. He has also done voice work as a guest appearance in the children's animated series and
.
Stage
Merrison was a member of
Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in the 1970s and the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon.
Merrison portrayed Antonin Artaud in the Rome and London premieres of Charles Marowitz's play, Artaud at Rodez.[Playbill for the 9–15 March 1978 performances at the Spingold Theater, Brandeis University, Massachusetts.]
He also portrayed the headmaster in the original National Theatre and Broadway productions of Alan Bennett's hit play, The History Boys which went on to win 6 Tony Awards and an Oliver for Best New Play. He reprised the role for the film version.
Film
Merrison played the onscreen father of
Kate Winslet in the 1994 film
Heavenly Creatures, directed by
Peter Jackson,
and the traditionalist headmaster in
Alan Bennett's
The History Boys, filmed in 2006. He was the forger in the 1981 film
Escape to Victory and also played Bartholomew Sholto in
The Sign of Four (1983), Desmond Fairchild in
An Awfully Big Adventure (1995) and the lawyer in
Saving Grace (2000). His other film credits included roles in
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972),
Riddles of the Sphinx (1977),
Coming Out of the Ice (1982), the
Clint Eastwood film
Firefox (1982),
The English Patient (1996),
True Blue (1996),
Photographing Fairies (1997),
Janice Beard (1999) and
Pandaemonium (2000).
Sherlock Holmes on radio
From 5 November 1989 to 5 July 1998, Merrison played the lead role of
Sherlock Holmes on radio in a series of BBC Radio 4 dramatisations, with Michael Williams as Dr. Watson. Later, with
Andrew Sachs as Watson, Merrison continued to play Holmes in the
Bert Coules-scripted pastiche series
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the first series of which was broadcast in 2002, the second in 2004, the third in 2008-9 and the fourth in 2010. He is the first actor to have played Holmes in adaptations of every short story and novel by Arthur Conan Doyle about the character.
Other radio appearances
Merrison has also appeared in other BBC radio series and plays, including
Jim Nicholson - Return to the Islands by Robert Barr (1971),
Groosham Grange;
Burn the Aeneid! by Martyn Wade;
One Winter's Afternoon;
Sunday at Sant' Agata (in which he played
Giuseppe Verdi); the 2003 adaptation of John Wyndham's
The Midwich Cuckoos, in which he played Prof. Gordon Zellaby;
Mr. Standfast; the 2011 adaptation of
A Tale of Two Cities (in which he played the Marquis St. Evremonde); the 2006 radio adaptation of
The History Boys (in which he played "The Headmaster",
a role he repeated on film); and
Strangers and Brothers.
Personal life
In 1967 Merrison lived at 45 Arlington Road in West Ealing. Also in 1967 he married Stephanie Tremethick.
[ Middlesex County Times Friday 25 August 1967, page 9]
In the 1990s Merrison lived in Suffolk.[ The Stage Thursday 5 February 1998, page 25] He married Gillian Barge in 2003, who died in the same year.
Selected filmography
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1972 Henry VIII and His Six Wives as Weston
-
1977 Riddles of the Sphinx as Chris
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1981 Escape to Victory as The Forger – The English
-
1981 Mark Gertler: Fragments of a Biography as Futurist
-
1982 Coming Out of the Ice as Bikov
-
1982 Firefox as Major Lanyev
-
1983 The Sign of Four as Bartholomew Sholto
-
1983 Reilly, Ace of Spies as Boris Savinkov
-
1986 Yes, Prime Minister as Dr. Peter Thorn
-
1992 Rebecca's Daughters as Sir Henry
-
1994 Heavenly Creatures as Dr. Henry Hulme
-
1995 An Awfully Big Adventure as Desmond Fairchild
-
1996 The English Patient as Fenelon-Barnes
-
1996 True Blue as Jack Garnet
-
1997 Photographing Fairies as Gardner
-
1999 Janice Beard as Tobo
-
2000 Saving Grace as Quentin
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2000 Up at the Villa as Archibald Grey
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2000 Pandaemonium as Dr. Gillman
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2001 The Discovery of Heaven as Theo Kern
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2006 The History Boys as The Headmaster
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2012 Bert and Dickie as Clement Attlee
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2015 The Lady in the Van as Man In Confessional
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2018 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as Mr. Gilbert
External links
