Biographical Information

Anthony Pedley was born in Chorley, Lancashire, and now lives at Holland on Sea in Essex.

He trained at RADA and made his professional theatre debut at the Liverpool Everyman in 1965. He then played in repertory at Northampton (playing Prospero in The Tempest at the age of 23!), and Leicester, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford in 1969. He was with the RSC for six years playing many parts including Malvolio in Twelfth Night (on tour in Japan),and Cool in London Assurance, with Donald Sinden and Judi Dench, both in the West End and on Broadway.

London credits include: Otherwise Engaged, Cause Celebre, Arms and the Man, She Would If She Could (directed by Jonathan Miller at Greenwich), Howard Barker's The Love of a Good Man at the Royal Court, playing Big Jule in the Royal National Theatre's production of Guys and Dolls (also on tour and in the West End with Lulu), Adam Faith's production of Alfie, and Night Must Fall with Jason Donovan. He was in The Visit at Chichester with Lauren Bacall, and followed that by playing Farmer Hogget in Babe - The Sheep Pig on a national tour, and subsequently, in 2006, at The Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. He has played the title role of Roald Dahl's The BFG, three times in London, and on several extensive national tours - 1746 performances in all!

Amongst other parts, he has played Demon Kings in pantomime, and The Fox in Pinocchio, as well as Long John Silver in Treasure Island - both at Newcastle and Leicester - also Captain Hook in Peter Pan at Theatr Clwyd. He was a member of The London Shakespeare Group with whom he used to tour to foreign climes (e.g. Middle East, Canada , Thailand, Norway - and Iraq, before the first Gulf War), and has also toured with American Drama Group Europe, taking Macbeth to Japan, Scandinavia, and most of Europe - including Windsor Castle! With ADGE he was Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for five years running, and in 2006, also with ADGE, he realised his ambition of playing King Lear.In 2011 he joined the Armonico Consort to play Monteverdi in Monteverdi's Flying Circus!

Numerous television credits include: AD. Anno Domini,Don't Wait Up, Yes Minister, Poirot, Parnell,Cribb, Crossroads, Coronation Street, Don't Leave Me This Way, Dennis Potter's Midnight Movie,Goodnight Sweetheart, Eastenders, and In Exile. Also, important roles in several of the BBC Shakespeare productions - Taming of the Shrew, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, Troilus and Cressida, and Coriolanus. Most of his film work has been done for the small screen by way of commercials - both UK and abroad, but does include small parts in A Fish called Wanda, and Fierce Creatures. BBC Radio broadcasts over the years include The Archers and The Vicar of Wakefield.

More recently, most of his work has come by performing 'A Taste of Dahl' plus the storytelling version of the ever popular 'The BFG'.