''Rocket Man'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

series produced in 2005 by Philip Leach, about a recently widowed Welsh man who is struggling to build a rocket in which to launch his wife's ashes into space while raising his two children. It was created by

Alison Hume Alison Louise Hume is a British Labour Party politician and television writer who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough and Whitby since 2024. In television she is known for her work as creator and executive producer of the CBBC ...

, directed by Jon East (episodes 1 and 2),

Jane Prowse Jane Prowse writes and directs theatre and television. Her play, '' A Round-Heeled Woman'', is a stage adaptation of Jane Juska's book ''A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance''. The play starred multi-award-winning a ...

(episodes 3 and 4) and James Strong (episodes 5 and 6), and stars

Robson Green Robson Golightly Green (born 18 December 1964) is an English actor, singer-songwriter and television presenter. His first major TV role was as hospital porter Jimmy Powell in BBC drama series '' Casualty'' in 1989. He then went on to portray F ...

Charles Dale Charles Dale (born 4 February 1963) is a Welsh actor known for playing Big Mac in ''Casualty'', Dennis Stringer in ''Coronation Street'', Gary "Chef" Alcock in '' The Lakes'' and Clive Eustace in '' The Eustace Bros.'' He was born in Tenby, P ...

, John Rhys Halliwell and Lucy Evans, with Alison Newman, Janine Wood, Kay Bridgeman,

Kai Owen Kai Owen (born 4 September 1975) is a Welsh actor of stage and screen, known to Welsh audiences for his numerous roles on Welsh language television and to worldwide audiences for his portrayal of Rhys Williams in ''Torchwood'' and Pete Bucha ...

, Dave Hill,

Philip Whitchurch Philip Whitchurch (born 30 January 1951) is an English stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for playing Captain William Frederickson in three episodes of ''Sharpe'' between 1994-1997 and the role of Chief Inspector Philip Cato i ...

and Marcus Smith in supporting roles, among others. The six hour-long episodes in the series were set in coastal

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, in a town devastated by the closure of the local carriage works though filmed in

Druridge Bay Druridge Bay is a long bay on the North Sea in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south. Druridge Bay Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of D ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

.Rocket Man entry
on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

(IMDb) etrieved 2015-07-24 According to the sign on the local

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

bonbon A bonbon, sometimes bon-bon, is a small chocolate confection. They are sometimes filled with liqueur or other sweet alcoholic drinks and sold wrapped in colored foil. Ingredients Through the Western world, bonbons are usually small candies but v ...

factory appearing in Episode 1 where George, Barney, Diane et al. work, the exact location where the set is (fictional) Tonglas, in Newport.

Cast

as George Stevenson, dyslexic widower and single parent *

as Barney Scott, George's best buddy and co-worker at the chocolate factory * John Rhys Halliwell as Tom Stevenson, George's eight-year-old son * Lucy Evans as Angela Stevenson, George's teenage daughter *

as David 'Shiner' Owen, security guard and another of George's mates * Dave Hill as Huw Masters, another of George's friends * Alison Newman as Diane Scott, Barney's wife * Janine Wood as Mary Hughes,

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

officer, former designer at the carriage works and George's love interest *

as Lloyd Edwards, owner of the local

scrapyard A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard ( Irish, British and New Zealand English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brou ...

* Kay Bridgeman as Pam Tomlyn, special needs co-ordinator /

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

at Tom's school * Marcus Smith as Ed Fernandez, Angela's love interest * Maureen Bennett as Barbara Masters, Huw's wife

References

External links

*
''Rocket Man''
at BBC. 2005 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings 2000s British comedy-drama television series 2000s British television miniseries BBC television dramas British comedy-drama television shows British English-language television shows Television shows set in Wales Television series by Banijay {{BBC-drama-tv-prog-stub