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Kevin Whately (born 6 February 1951) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Neville "Nev" Hope in the British
comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
'' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'', Robert "Robbie" Lewis in the crime dramas '' Inspector Morse'' 1987–2000 and ''
Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
'' 2006–2015, and his role as Jack Kerruish in the drama series ''
Peak Practice ''Peak Practice'' is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale—a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District—and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their m ...
'', although he has appeared in numerous other roles.


Early life

Whately is from Humshaugh, near
Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...
,
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...
. His mother, Mary (née Pickering), was a teacher and his father, Richard, was a Commander in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
. His maternal grandmother, Doris Phillips, was a professional concert singer and his great-great-grandfather,
Richard Whately Richard Whately (1 February 1787 – 8 October 1863) was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as a reforming Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. He was a leading Broad Churchman, ...
, was Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. The BBC documentary '' Who Do You Think You Are?'', broadcast on 2 March 2009, also revealed that Whately is a descendant, on his paternal side, of Thomas Whately of Nonsuch Park (father of
Thomas Whately Thomas Whately (1726 – 26 May 1772), an English politician and writer, was a Member of Parliament (1761–1768), who served as Commissioner on the Board of Trade, as Secretary to the Treasury under Lord Grenville, and as Under-secretary of Sta ...
), a leading London merchant, English politician and writer who became a director of the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
, and of Major Robert Thompson, a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian cause at the time of the
English Commonwealth The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execu ...
who later settled in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
, where he became a pioneer tobacco plantation owner. Whately was educated at Barnard Castle School, and went on to study accounting and finance at
Newcastle Polytechnic , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = ...
, graduating in 1969. He then trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1975 after having partly supported himself by working for the National Theatre at
The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
. Before going professional, Whately was an amateur actor at the People's Theatre in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
during the 1970s. His brother, Frank, is a lecturer at
Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...
in London.


Career

Before turning to professional acting, Whately began his working life as a
folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
, and still plays the guitar, performing for charity concerts. Along with other ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' stars, he makes an appearance at the biennial benefit concert '' Sunday for Sammy'' in Newcastle. Before becoming an actor, he started training as an accountant. His acting career includes several
stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, f ...
s, among them an adaptation of '' Twelve Angry Men'', and film appearances in '' The Return of the Soldier'', ''
The English Patient ''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters are: an unrecognisably burn ...
'', '' Paranoid'' and '' Purely Belter''. Whately's television appearances include episodes of ''
Shoestring Shoelaces, also called shoestrings (US English) or bootlaces (UK English), are a system commonly used to secure shoes, boots, and other footwear. They typically consist of a pair of strings or cords, one for each shoe, finished off at both end ...
'', '' Geordie Racer'', ''
Angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...
'', '' Juliet Bravo'', ''
Strangers A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity and character can be ascertained. Different classes of strangers have been identified f ...
'', ''
Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...
'', '' Auf Wiedersehen Pet'', '' Alas Smith and Jones'', '' Look and Read'', '' You Must Be The Husband'', '' B&B'', ''
Peak Practice ''Peak Practice'' is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale—a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District—and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their m ...
'', '' Skallagrigg'', ''
The Broker's Man ''The Broker's Man '' is a BBC British television drama series centred on the work of Jimmy Griffin, an ex-detective who applies his skills as a fraud investigator for an insurance company. Produced by Bentley Productions for BBC One, the seri ...
'', '' Murder in Mind'', ''Inspector Morse'', 2003 Comic Relief ''Auf Wiedersehen Pet'', ''
Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
'', '' New Tricks'', '' Who Gets the Dog?'', '' The Children'' and '' Silent Cry''. Whately provided one of the voices for the English-language version of the 1999 claymation
Children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...
'' Hilltop Hospital''. He has also done voiceovers for a WaterAid advertisement. In 1985, Whately appeared in a 3-part '' Miss Marple'' adaptation (" A Murder Is Announced") for the BBC. His part, Detective Sergeant Fletcher, opposite John Castle as Inspector Craddock, was very similar to what became the career-defining role he took two years later, when he was cast as Detective Sergeant Lewis, the down-to-earth complement to the eponymous '' Inspector Morse'' played by
John Thaw John Edward Thaw, (3 January 1942 – 21 February 2002) was an English actor who appeared in a range of television, stage, and cinema roles. He starred in the television series '' Inspector Morse'' as title character Detective Chief Inspector ...
. Whately starred opposite Thaw in 32 episodes over 13 years in the hugely successful series that established him as a household name in the UK. He reprised the role in the spin-off series ''
Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
'', in which Lewis returns to Oxford as a full Inspector. With his new partner, the Cambridge-educated Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (
Laurence Fox Laurence Paul Fox (born 1978) is a political activist and former actor, most well-known for playing the supporting role of DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series '' Lewis'' from 2006 to 2015. A grandson of the actors Robin and Ange ...
), Inspector Lewis solves murder mysteries while trying to rebuild his life after his wife's sudden death in a hit-and-run accident and to gain recognition from his initially sceptical new boss. Richard Marson's book celebrating fifty years of ''
Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...
'' comments that Whately auditioned as a presenter for the show in 1980 but lost out to Peter Duncan. In 2010 Whately played the lead in the television film '' Joe Maddison's War'' about strained family and social relations in wartime. Directed by Patrick Collerton, it presented a view of World War II through the eyes of shipyard worker and World War I veteran Joe Maddison (Kevin Whately) who serves in the Home Guard during the Blitz. Upon the conclusion of filming the seventh series of ''Lewis'', at the end of 2012, both Whately and Laurence Fox announced that they would take a break of at least a year before appearing in any more episodes. ITV indicated a continuing commitment to the series and that they wished to produce additional episodes of the programme. On 4 November 2012, Whately performed in a radio drama on BBC3 called ''The Torchbearers'', which chronicles the circumstances of several UK citizens whose lives are changed through contact with the Olympic Torch. In 2013, the Live Theatre of Newcastle upon Tyne produced a series of performances of the unique, acclaimed one-person play, '' White Rabbit, Red Rabbit'', which is enacted as a cold reading with no sets or costumes by a different performer each night. Whately was the actor for the sold-out performance of 10 March 2013. Following the end of the ninth and final series of ''Lewis'', Whately announced his retirement from acting. He had played the character Lewis over a span of 28 years. Whately was the patron of the Central School of Speech and Drama Full House Theatre Company for 2011.


Personal life

Whately lives in Woburn Sands near
Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
with his wife, actress
Madelaine Newton Madelaine Newton is a British actress best known for her portrayal of Dolly in 1970s BBC television drama ''When the Boat Comes In''. Since 1984 she has been married to actor Kevin Whately, known for his role as Robert "Robbie" Lewis in both ''In ...
, who starred in the 1970s BBC drama '' When the Boat Comes In''. Madelaine starred as Morse's love interest in the Inspector Morse episode entitled '' Masonic Mysteries'' (1990; series 4, episode 4). Whately enjoys rock music and plays the guitar; he has cited
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...
and
Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and per ...
as bands he has particularly enjoyed. He is a fan of
Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...
on the
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
field, but says that he prefers
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
, and as a
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
er admitted to ''Inspector Morse'' writer
Colin Dexter Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''Inspector Morse'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV television series, ''Inspector Morse'', fr ...
that he would like to have played cricket professionally for England. Dexter devised the storyline for the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Deceived by Flight" (1989; series 3, episode 3) in which Sergeant Lewis had to go undercover in a cricket team to investigate drug smuggling. In August 2014, Whately was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's independence referendum.


Filmography


Film


Television


Stage


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whately, Kevin 1951 births Living people 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Alumni of Northumbria University Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama English male film actors English male radio actors English male stage actors English male television actors English male voice actors Inspector Morse People educated at Barnard Castle School People from Hexham People from Milton Keynes