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Geoffrey McGivern

Geoffrey McGivern

Acting

Biography

Geoffrey M. McGivern is a British actor in film, television, radio and stage, as well as a comedian. He is best known for originating the role of Ford Prefect in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He played Ford Prefect in the radio series (1978–80) and subsequent LP releases of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams whom he knew from Cambridge University, and reprised the role for the four new series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 2004 and 2018. A more recent radio broadcast was in The Ape That Got Lucky and he has appeared in TV shows such as Noel's House Party, Press Gang, Chef!, Big Train, Blackadder the Third ("Dish and Dishonesty") as Ivor Biggun, Chelmsford 123, Jonathan Creek, 15 Storeys High, Armstrong and Miller, Toast of London and series three of Peep Show. McGivern appeared in the first series of the comedy show Big Train in 1998, and later that year for the 1998 radio SciFi drama Paradise Lost in Cyberspace (Colin Swash, BBC) McGivern teamed up with old Hitchhiker's colleague Stephen Moore and Lorelei King (member of cast in the 2005 Hitchhiker's radio show sequel). He later played the Supreme Ruler in BBC2's sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive (2006–2007). In 2007, he appeared in the BBC Radio 4 comedy Peacefully in their Sleeps and in 2008 he appeared as Professor John Mycroft in the BBC2 science sitcom Lab Rats and in the 2008 BBC series Little Dorrit where he played Mr Rugg. He also appeared in episode 5 of series 3 of the TV series A Bit of Fry and Laurie. In 2015, he guest-starred in EastEnders as Dickie Ticker, the crude comic brought in by Mick Carter for Kush Kazemi's stag night. In 2016, he appeared in four episodes of the Disney Channel musical drama The Lodge, as Patrick. McGivern played the narrator Charlie Swinburne in the BBC Radio's 2013 six part dramatisation of G. K. Chesterton's The Club of Queer Trades. In 2017, he appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Back, written by Simon Blackwell, alongside David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Later that year, he began portraying the recurring role of Frank in the Netflix series Free Rein. Since 2019, he has appeared as recurring character Barclay Beg-Chetwynde in the BBC comedy Ghosts. In 2022, he appeared as the main character Russ, in Radio 4 comedy No-Platformed. The show's episode guide contains a humorous note about McGivern's extensive credit list, by starting a list of his credits and then adding "oh, hundreds of things". In 2024, he appeared as recurring character Lord Rookwood in the Apple TV+ series The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.

Known For

Outlander
8.2

The story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, a passionate affair is ignited that tears Claire's heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Outlander

2014
Heartbeat
7.2

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

Heartbeat

1992
Blackadder
8.0

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

Blackadder

1983
Benidorm
7.5

Set in the Solana all-inclusive Resort, Benidorm follows the antics of regulars and first-time holiday makers on their journeys abroad.

Benidorm

2007
Grantchester
7.2

In 1953 at the hamlet of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers—a charismatic, charming clergyman—turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.

Grantchester

2014
Absolutely Fabulous
7.5

Set in the world of fashion and PR, immature fun-loving mother Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy drive Eddie's sensible daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness. Numerous in-jokes and heavy doses of cruel humour have made this series a cult hit in the UK and abroad.

Absolutely Fabulous

1992
Birds of a Feather
6.3

Birds of a Feather is a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC One from 1989 until 1998 and on ITV from 2013. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers. The first episode sees sisters Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodos brought together when their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery. Sharon, who lived in an Edmonton council flat, moves into Tracey's expensive house in Chigwell, Essex. Their next-door neighbour, and later friend, Dorien Green is a middle-aged married woman who is constantly having affairs with younger men. In the later series the location is changed to Hainault. The series ended on Christmas Eve 1998 after a 9-year-run.

Birds of a Feather

1989
Peep Show
8.1

Peep Show follows the lives of two men from their twenties to thirties, Mark Corrigan, who has steady employment for most of the series, and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne, an unemployed would-be musician.

Peep Show

2003
Ghosts
7.9

A cash-strapped young couple inherits a grand country house, only to find it is both falling apart and teeming with the ghosts of former inhabitants.

Ghosts

2019
Episodes
7.2

A British husband-and-wife comedy writing team travel to Hollywood to remake their successful British TV series, with disastrous results.

Episodes

2011
Sister Boniface Mysteries
6.4

First there was Father Brown. Now, say hello to Sister Boniface. This clever, moped-riding nun is the police's secret weapon for solving murders in this divine Father Brown spin-off.

Sister Boniface Mysteries

2022
Jonathan Creek
7.5

Working from his home in a converted windmill, Jonathan Creek is a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He soon puts this ability to the use of solving impossible crimes and mysterious murders.

Jonathan Creek

1997
Murder Most Horrid
6.9

Comedienne Dawn French tackles dark, tongue-in-cheek thrillers as her various characters embark on a different mystery every episode. In one way or another, she is involved with murder — either committing the crime or even getting bumped off herself!

Murder Most Horrid

1991
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin
6.5

Legendary highwayman Dick Turpin sets out on a series of wildly absurd escapades when he's made the reluctant leader of a band of outlaws—and tasked with outwitting utterly corrupt lawman Jonathan Wilde.

The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin

2024
Drop the Dead Donkey
7.0

A sitcom set in the offices of "GlobeLink News" after its acquisition by media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant. Led by editor George Dent, the staff of GlobeLink battle to maintain the company as a serious news organization against Sir Roysten's right-hand man, Gus Hedges, who wants to make the show more sensationalist and suppress stories that might harm Roysten's business empire.

Drop the Dead Donkey

1990
Plebs
7.2

Sitcom about three desperate young men from the suburbs who try to get laid, hold down jobs and climb the social ladder in the big city - which just happens to be ancient Rome.

Plebs

2013
Little Dorrit
7.8

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

Little Dorrit

2008
Blandings
7.2

Blandings is a British comedy television series adapted by Guy Andrews from the Blandings Castle stories of P.G. Wodehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC One from 13 January 2013, and stars Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and Mark Williams. The series was produced with the partial financial assistance of the European Regional Development Fund.

Blandings

2013
Vicious
7.5

Freddie and Stuart are an old couple who have been together for decades and bicker constantly. Their lives are turned upside down by their new upstairs neighbor Ash, who is sure to cause trouble in their mundane lives.

Vicious

2013
A Young Doctor's Notebook
7.1

A young doctor who has graduated at the top of his class from the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry is thrust out into an isolated and impoverished country side as the village's only doctor. As he learns to adapt to his new lifestyle, he develops a morphine addiction to stay his sanity while realizing what being a doctor in the real world means.

A Young Doctor's Notebook

2012