Duncan Preston
Acting
Biography
No biography available for Duncan Preston.
Born: August 11, 1946
Place of Birth: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Known For
Dinnerladies Diaries
In 1998 Victoria Wood put pen to paper and wrote her multi-award-winning comedy, dinnerladies. Twenty years on this documentary takes a look back at what it was like working on this well-loved sitcom.
Born and Bred
In the 1950s at the fictional Lancashire village of Ormston, a father and son, both doctors, navigate the challenges of running a cottage hospital under the newly established National Health Service.
All Creatures Great and Small
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.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV is a British sketch comedy series created by and starring comedian Victoria Wood with Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show broadcast on BBC Two between 1985 and 1987, and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom; these included one-offs like Two Soups and regular features such as Acorn Antiques, as well as musical performances by Wood including her most well-known number, The Ballad of Barry and Freda.
The Royal
Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.
Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood was a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. In America it was retitled Robin Hood and shown on the premium cable TV channel Showtime and on PBS. The show starred Michael Praed and Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, Robin of Sherwood combined a gritty, authentic production design with elements of real-life history, 20th century fiction, and pagan myth. The series is also notable for its haunting title music by Clannad, which won a BAFTA award.
Shine on Harvey Moon
Shine on Harvey Moon! is a British comedy-drama series made by Central Television for ITV from 8 January 1982 to 23 August 1985 and briefly revived in 1995 by Meridian. This generally light-hearted series was created by comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. The series is set in the East End of London shortly after the Second World War. Upon being demobbed RAF serviceman Harvey Moon, played by Kenneth Cranham, returns home and finds his family involved in various troubles. His wife Rita, played by Maggie Steed, is not interested in resuming their relationship, and works in a seedy nightclub frequented by American servicemen. He becomes involved with the Labour Party and the union movement. The name of the series is a wordplay on the title of the popular 1908 song 'Shine On, Harvest Moon'. The first series was commissioned and recorded by ATV at their Elstree studios with the remaining series filmed at newly constructed facilities in Nottingham.
Pat and Margaret
Unexpected events occur when Pat, a glamorous British-born star of American soaps, returns home to plug her auto-biography on television and meets, for the first time since they were teenagers, Margaret her plain and frumpy younger sister. The meeting is painful for both women highlighting the vast differences in their lives and resurrecting painful memories of their unhappy childhood with an uncaring, errant mother. The tabloid press smell a juicy story and a race ensues to trace the whereabouts of the long lost parent.
Acorn Antiques
Starring Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, with the snobby continuity announcer played by Susie Blake, Acorn Antiques was a mini soap opera set in a shop on the outskirts of Manchesterford. Viewers were gripped with the everyday dramas that beset Miss Babs (Celia Imrie), Berta (Victoria Wood) and the glamorous Mrs Overall (Julie Walters). Now each thrilling episode is available together for the first time on DVD, including "Babs and the Cup of Coffee", "Mrs Overall and her Apron" and the memorable classic "Berta coming through the Doorway". Re-live the drama as Mrs Overall serves up another batch of macaroons and Babs discusses the future of the shop. What will be this week's riveting cliff hanger? Will the set survive? Written by Victoria Wood, Acorn Antiques was Produced and Directed by Geoff Posner and first transmitted as part of Victoria Wood as Seen on TV… in January 1985.
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood was a series of six one-off situation comedies written by and starring Victoria Wood in 1989, who took a break from sketches, two years after her very successful and award winning series Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. Wood appeared as "Victoria", a fictionalised version of herself, in all six episodes - in The Library it was said that she "worked in TV" and in Over To Pam characters appeared to recognise her celebrity and in the final episode, Staying In, she was taken to a party to perform as a comedienne and was expected to go through her stand-up 'routine'. Her character often broke the 'fourth wall' of TV and spoke directly to the camera, but not in every episode. Bored with the sketch format and with a yearning to recapture previous success as a playwright, Wood came up with six individual sitcoms as a compromise. She admitted to finding the writing difficult. Though Wood was written as the central character, other lead parts were written with specific actresses in mind, like Julie Walters and Una Stubbs. "I want people to like me and the people who play my friends, and not everybody else" she said. Screenonline says of the shows "Modest in ambition and scale but rich in wit and acuity, the six playlets showcase Wood's eye for human foibles and her distinctively eccentric characters.".
Filmography
as Hugo Lawrence-Batley
as Self
as Ged
as Sophie's Dad
as Self - Participant
as Tommy
as Grandpa Jim
as Mr. Clifford
as Sergeant
as John Rutter
as Colin Pinkerton / 'The Magnificent Colin'
as Sgt Wilson
as Stan Meadowcroft
as William Fleming
as Colin Cooper
as J.F. Kennedy
as DI Johnny Campbell
as Kevin's Dad
as Jim
as Martin Wilson
as Tommy Tanner
as Don Foster
as Captain Lewis (voice)
as Jonathan Haslam
as Douglas Homer
as Pugmire
as Clifford
as Floor Manager
as Moose Magnusson
as Gerald
as Ralph Campbell
as DS Todd
as Club Member (Uncredited)
as Heinrich von Erlichshausen
as Hal
as Fred Harston
as Fireman
as Mr Braithwaite
as Paul
as Police Car Driver
as Weatherman
as Angus
as Sep Gibbons
as Karl Drake
as Jacques Gavain
as Prison Guard
as Groom
as PC Fred Pooley
as Doug Potts