James Bolam

James Bolam is an English actor born on 16 June 1935 in Sunderland, County Durham. His father, Robert Alfred Bolam, came from Northumberland, and his mother, Marion Alice Drury, from County Durham. He attended Bede Grammar School in Sunderland and later Bemrose School in Derby. Before pursuing acting, Bolam trained as an articled clerk to a chartered accountant. He subsequently enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where he earned the gold medal and the Margaret Rawlings Cup. To fund his studies, he worked nights washing dishes at a Lyons Corner House tearoom and West End restaurants.

Bolam's first professional engagement was as an understudy to Ronnie Barker in Chekhov's Platonov at the Royal Court Theatre. He made his screen debut in the early 1960s, appearing in television series such as Z-Cars and in the Northern social realist films A Kind of Loving and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both released in 1962. In the latter, he played the best friend of the title character, portrayed by Tom Courtenay. The BBC sitcom The Likely Lads, which ran from 1964 to 1966, brought Bolam widespread recognition through his role as Terry Collier alongside Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris. Bolam subsequently adapted the scripts for a BBC Radio version of the series.

In 1966, Bolam appeared on Broadway in How's the World Treating You?, marking his sole credited Broadway engagement. During the same period, he appeared in films including Half a Sixpence in 1967 and Otley in 1969, and he joined John Thaw in the Granada serial Inheritance in 1967. The sequel series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? ran across two series in 1973 and 1974, followed by a Christmas Eve special later that year. In 1975, Bolam participated in a further BBC Radio series adapted from the 1973 television run, and in 1976 the cast reunited for a feature film spin-off simply titled The Likely Lads.

Also in 1976, Bolam took on the role of Jack Ford in the BBC Television series When the Boat Comes In, which continued until 1981. The performance earned him two consecutive nominations for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor, in 1977 and 1978. From 1979 to 1982 he played Roy Figgis in the hospital comedy Only When I Laugh, and he appeared as Trevor Chaplin across The Beiderbecke Affair in 1985, The Beiderbecke Tapes in 1987, and The Beiderbecke Connection in 1988. He also took the title role in Andy Capp and played Bill MacGregor in Second Thoughts, which ran from May 1991 to October 1994, a role he had originated in the mid-1980s radio version of the same series. In 1995, his stage work brought him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Donmar Warehouse.

Bolam's subsequent television work included roles in Midsomer Murders, Dalziel and Pascoe, Close and True, and Born and Bred, in which he played Dr. Arthur Gilder. He appeared alongside Timothy West and Sheila Hancock in the 2002 BBC comedy-drama Bedtime, playing Ronnie Stribling. That same year he portrayed the serial killer Harold Shipman in the ITV drama Shipman, an adaptation of Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie's book Prescription for Murder. In 2006, he played former Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the BBC documentary The Plot Against Harold Wilson. From 2009 onward he played Jack Halford in New Tricks, and he took the title role of Grandpa in the CBeebies programme Grandpa in My Pocket. In 2009 he also appeared as Ken Lewis, CEO of the Bank of America, in the television dramatisation The Last Days of Lehman Brothers.

On radio, Bolam played Willie Garvin in a 1978 BBC World Service adaptation of the Modesty Blaise story Last Day in Limbo, and in 2000 he voiced Sir Archibald Flint in the Doctor Who audio play The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. He provided the voice of The Tod in the 1982 animated film The Plague Dogs and served as narrator for the three-part BBC One football documentary Three Lions, broadcast ahead of Euro 2000. His stage credits include Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse in London, and a 2005 appearance in Frank Loesser's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Bolam was appointed MBE in the 2009 Birthday Honours for services to drama. He lives in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, and Chiswick, London, with his wife, actress Susan Jameson. They have one daughter. He is a member of the Stage Golfing Society and has been publicly active on local environmental issues, campaigning against oil drilling near Wisborough Green in 2013 and appearing in a 2017 video opposing a proposed extension to oil drilling in West Sussex.