John Henshaw

John Henshaw (born 1951, Ancoats, Manchester, Lancashire) is a British actor, best known for his roles as Ken the landlord in Early Doors, Wilf Bradshaw in Born and Bred and PC Roy Bramwell in The Cops. He is often associated with playing "hard men". He played John Prescott in ITV drama Confessions of a Diary Secretary.

One of 12 siblings, he grew up in Ancoats, Manchester's "Little Italy" community. He was a binman (refuse collector) for ten years before deciding to become an actor at the age of 40. His first big break in acting was as a minder to Robert Lindsay's character Michael Murray in the acclaimed Channel 4 series, G.B.H.. He had roles in the Steve Coogan film, The Parole Officer and in the BBC Three sitcom The Visit, which was first shown 15 July 2007. In 2002, he appeared in a Scottish Gaelic drama, Anna Bheag (Wee Anna), although he does not play a Gaelic-speaking character.^[1]

Other credits include Nice Guy Eddie, When Saturday Comes and appearances in The Royle Family, Last of the Summer Wine and Life on Mars. In September 2007 at the Lowry in Salford he starred in the world premier of King Cotton.

He played the role of Ken, the deputy manager in the Post Office adverts (2007–08). March 2008 saw Henshaw return to the Manchester area playing the lead in Jim Cartwright's play Road at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Summer 2009 saw Henshaw play Meatballs in the Ken Loach-directed and Eric Cantona-starring film Looking for Eric. Meatballs was a workmate and friend of the lead character Eric Bishop (Steve Evets). In 2010 he played Mr. Pony in Terry Pratchett's Going Postal and in 2011 he portrayed the character of John Holt, one of the original founding fathers of the Co-operative movement, in a feature film The Rochdale Pioneers set for release in 2012.^[2] In 2013 played Arthur Potts in Series 15 Episode 5 ( The Sicilian Defence ) of Midsomer Murders. He also played the role of Harry in Scottish feel good film 'The Angels' Share' in 2012.

In 2013, he played Stan Bond in By Any Means.

Henshaw is chairman of the 24:7 Theatre Festival, an annual festival of new writing for theatre based in Manchester.^{[citation needed]} He is a lifelong fan of Manchester City F.C. and regularly attends their matches.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• John Henshaw at the Internet Movie Database