Alan Rothwell

Acting

Alan Rothwell

Born — Died

1937-02-09 — 2026-05-14

Place of birth

Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

40 titles

Alan Rothwell was a British actor and television presenter. He played David Barlow in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as a regular from 1960 to 1961, and again from 1963 to 1968. He was Nicholas Black in Brookside between 1985 and 1986. He presented the children's TV series Picture Box from 1968 to 1989.

Known for

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Sherlock Holmes poster
8.2

Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, uses his abilities to take on cases by private clients and those that the Scotland Yard are unable to solve.

Sherlock Holmes

1984

Shameless poster
7.5

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.

Shameless

2004

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

The Musketeers poster
7.1

Set in 17th century Paris, musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan are members of an elite band of soldiers who fight for what is just. They are heroes in the truest and most abiding sense – men that can be trusted and believed in to do the right thing, regardless of personal risk.

The Musketeers

2014

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 3 titles

1970s · 2 titles

Series credits

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Sherlock Holmes poster
8.2

Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, uses his abilities to take on cases by private clients and those that the Scotland Yard are unable to solve.

Sherlock Holmes

1984

Shameless poster
7.5

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.

Shameless

2004

Shameless poster
7.5

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.

Shameless

2004

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

The Musketeers poster
7.1

Set in 17th century Paris, musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan are members of an elite band of soldiers who fight for what is just. They are heroes in the truest and most abiding sense – men that can be trusted and believed in to do the right thing, regardless of personal risk.

The Musketeers

2014

No artwork available
6.0

Open Air was BBC1's flagship programme for their new daytime service which began on 27 October 1986. It discussed all aspects of television and also tried to answer any questions which viewers had.

Open Air

1986

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates poster
7.3

Instead of spending her golden years lying down, the indomitable Hetty Wainthropp found her calling late in life. Combining common sense, her husband, and her pocketbook, this senior sleuth takes on all the cases the police deem too minor.

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

1996

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates poster
7.3

Instead of spending her golden years lying down, the indomitable Hetty Wainthropp found her calling late in life. Combining common sense, her husband, and her pocketbook, this senior sleuth takes on all the cases the police deem too minor.

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

1996

Children's Ward poster
5.2

Children's Ward is a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its Children's ITV strand on weekday afternoons. The programme was set – as the title suggests – in Ward B1, the children's ward of the fictitious South Park Hospital, and told the stories of the young patients and the staff present there. Aimed at older children and teenagers, Children's Ward was a long-lived series for a children's drama, starting life in 1988 as a contribution to the Dramarama anthology strand, "Blackbird Singing In The Dead of Night", then first broadcast as a series 1989 and running from then until 2000. The series was conceived by Granada staff writers Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor, both of whom went on to enjoy successful careers as award-winning writers of adult television drama. At the time, they were both working on the soap opera Coronation Street, and had recently collaborated on a script for Dramarama. Abbott, who had been through a troubled childhood himself, had initially wanted to set the series in a children's care home rather than a hospital, but this was vetoed by Granada executives. During the course of its run, however, Children's Ward won many plaudits for covering difficult issues such as cancer, alcoholism, drug addiction and child abuse in a sensitive manner. The programme won many awards, including in 1996 a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Drama, won by an episode in which a serial killer lures children to him via the internet and is – highly unusually for children's television – not eventually caught.

Children's Ward

1989

Gideon's Way poster
7.0

Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey. The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series. It starred Liverpudlian John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, with Alexander Davion as his assistant, Detective Chief Inspector David Keen, Reginald Jessup as Det. Superintendent LeMaitre, Ian Rossiter as Detective Chief Superintendent Joe Bell and Basil Dignam as Commissioner Scott-Marle. The show did not acknowledge any help from Scotland Yard, any other police force or advisor. Daphne Anderson starred as his wife, Kate with Giles Watling as young son, Malcolm, Richard James as older son, Matthew who seemed to have a lot of new girlfriends and Andrea Allan as daughter, Pru. Unusually for police stories, Gideon was shown as a family man at home though urgent phone calls from his bosses tend to disrupt family plans too often. However, he did admit in "State Visit" that his wife had walked out on him for a while years ago when he put the job first and her second. They live in an expensive detached house in Chelsea.

Gideon's Way

1965

Sergeant Cork poster
7.2

Sergeant Cork is a British detective television series which first aired between 1963 and 1968 on ITV. It was a police procedural show that followed the efforts of two police officers and their battle against crime in Victorian London. In all 66 hour-long episodes were aired during the five-year run, although the last episode was not broadcast until January 1968, 16 months after the others. Journalist Tom Sutcliffe has credited it as a first example of the use of the Victorian-era policeman in a television crime series. A 1969 review in The Age opined that rather than suspense, the strengths of the series were its "excellent period settings and wonderfully thick pea-soupers" which "add up to splendid evocative stuff", as well as the performance of star John Barrie. At no time during the whole series is Sergeant Cork's first name given.

Sergeant Cork

1963

Watching poster
8.2

A young couple from Merseyside and their off again/on again relationship.

Watching

1987

No artwork available
5.3

Harry is a television drama series produced by Union Pictures for the BBC, and shown on BBC1 between 18 September 1993 and 12 April 1995. The programme follows a journalist called Harry Salter, who ran a news agency in the English town of Darlington.

Harry

1993

Queer as Folk poster
7.8

Stuart Jones has got it all. He's rich, drop-dead gorgeous and always the centre of attention. He can be forgiven the arrogance because he's pretty close to perfection. His best mate Vince Tyler is funny, adorable and definitely a babe but, unlike his friend, has zero confidence in himself. Since time began, Vince has carried a torch for Stuart but his love remains firmly unrequited. They're both 29, hitting Canal Street every night, stalwarts of the scene but just starting to wonder where else their lives may be going. Then along comes Nathan Maloney. Young, wild and coming out with a vengeance, he crowbars his way into their world and once he arrives, nothing is ever the same again.

Queer as Folk

1999

(All Quiet on the) Preston Front poster
5.8

All Quiet on the Preston Front (or the shortened Preston Front as it became known for series two and three) was a BBC comedy drama about a group of friends in the fictional Lancashire town of Roker Bridge, and their links to the local Territorial Army infantry platoon. It was created by Tim Firth and ran from 1994 to 1997.

(All Quiet on the) Preston Front

1994

New Street Law poster
6.6

Follows two rival barristers' chambers in Manchester, England, contrasting defence Jack Roper's struggling firm with his former mentor, prosecutor Laurence Scammel's more established chambers, and exploring their personal and professional rivalry through complex legal cases.

New Street Law

2006

The Grand poster
5.1

The Grand is an ITV television drama series created and written by Russell T Davies and starring Rebecca Callard, Tim Healy, Susan Hampshire, Paul Warriner, and Mark McGann. Following WWI, the Bannerman family re-opens the Grand Hotel after a lengthy closure and a costly re-furbishing. The hotel has been in the family for a long time, and John Bannerman and his wife Sarah desperately want to make a go. Their son Stephen has returned from the wars without any physical harm but still suffers from the mental anguish of seeing so many of his comrades-in-arms falling on the battlefield. When they learn that their accountant has squandered what little money they had left, they must turn to John's brother Marcus, a successful businessman who has eschewed any interest in the hotel over the years but now seems ready to plunge into the business with both feet.

The Grand

1997

The Driver poster
7.0

The Driver is a three-part British crime drama serial aired on BBC One between 23 September and 7 October 2014. Written by Danny Brocklehurst and directed by Jamie Payne, it stars David Morrissey as despondent cab driver Vince McKee, whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to be the driver for a criminal gang.

The Driver

2014

Conviction poster
7.8

The murder of a 12-year-old girl leaves her local community shell-shocked and intent on revenge. As the public clamour for justice, the team investigating the murder battle against a growing sense of vigilantism on their patch.

Conviction

2004

No artwork available
NR

Top Secret was a British TV spy series broadcast in two seasons on ITV in 1961-1962 which was produced by Associated-Rediffusion. It starred William Franklyn as suave secret agent Peter Dallas, over a total of 26 black-and-white episodes, each filling a 60 minutes slot. All episodes also featured Patrick Cargill as Miguel Garetta, and Alan Rothwell as "Mike".

Top Secret

1961

Oliver Twist poster
6.5

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

Oliver Twist

1962

Dead Man Weds poster
7.0

Dead Man Weds is a 6-part comedy series shown on ITV on British TV in January and early February 2005. The series was written by Dave Spikey who played the part of Jerry St Clair in Phoenix Nights. It was produced for ITV by the independent producers Red Production Company. There are two lead parts, one being Dave Spikey and the other being Johnny Vegas. The series is based on the fictional newspaper, The Fogburrow Advertiser. New editor, Gordon Garden, is determined to shake up the small rural newspaper office. Acting editor and all-round lazy slob Lewis Donat is furious at Gordon's appointment, convinced that the job should be his. Lewis's school of journalism involves going on a break as soon as he gets in, stealing stories from old piles of newspapers and getting the rest of the news from Joan at the cake shop, Cake That. The show's title was inspired by a headline from the Bolton Evening News. The series was filmed in Castleton in Derbyshire. The theme music, also used as incidental music and stings throughout the series, was a version of the Jonathan King composition "It's Good News Week", a 1965 hit for Hedgehoppers Anonymous.

Dead Man Weds

2005

Cilla's Comedy Six poster
5.5

In a similar vane to Ronnie Barker’s Seven Of One, Cilla Black dips her toe into the world of sitcom, each week playing a different character in six one off comedy plays.

Cilla's Comedy Six

1975