Jimmy Nail

James Michael Aloysius Bradford, born on 16 March 1954 in Newcastle upon Tyne and known professionally as Jimmy Nail, is an English singer-songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer. His father, also named Jimmy, was an Irish Catholic shipyard worker, amateur boxer, and professional footballer, and his mother was named Laura. Nail has described himself as a difficult child who was expelled from secondary school after setting fire to curtains. At the age of 13, he experienced the death of his sister Shelagh, who died at a party from a combined overdose of alcohol and antidepressant drugs at the age of 20. In the years that followed, Nail was involved in a fight after a Newcastle United match during the 1970s and served a short prison sentence for grievous bodily harm.

Following his release, Nail worked in a glass factory, where he stood on a six-inch spike while opening a crate of glass, an incident that gave rise to the surname he would later adopt professionally. During that same period he sang in a rock band called the King Crabs, performing locally in Newcastle, at times in his girlfriend's dress and Doc Marten boots. His sister Val McLane is an actress who co-founded the Live Theatre Company in Newcastle in 1973 and later became Head of Drama at Sunderland University.

Nail's acting career began in 1982 when his partner Miriam encouraged him to audition for a television role despite his having no prior acting experience. He won the part of Leonard "Oz" Osborne in the ITV comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which followed British construction workers working abroad. After a slow start in 1983, the show reached ratings of 17 million viewers, and Nail reprised the role in a second series that aired over 13 weeks in 1986. He later collaborated with Ian la Frenais on the BBC drama series Spender, which ran from 1990 to 1992 across three series totalling 22 hours, plus a two-hour Christmas special in 1993, consistently drawing around 14 million viewers. In 1994, Nail created, executive produced, wrote, and starred in the BBC drama Crocodile Shoes, originally conceived as a single film for BBC2 before expanding to two series on BBC1 over 13 hours, averaging approximately 9 million viewers per episode. He returned to Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in a BBC revival filmed in Middlesbrough and Arizona in 2001, which aired in 2002 to an audience of 12.9 million, with a subsequent series set partly in Havana and a final two-hour instalment set in Laos broadcast over Christmas 2004 to over seven million viewers. In 2008, Nail created and starred as Phil Parker in the six-episode BBC1 series Parents of the Band, which broadcast between November 2008 and January 2009.

Nail's music career began in parallel with his television work. In 1985 he recorded the album Take It Or Leave It, which included a cover of the Rose Royce hit "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" that peaked at number 3 in the UK charts and earned him his first appearance on Top of the Pops. After seven years away from recording, he returned in 1992 with the single "Ain't No Doubt," co-written with Danny Schogger, Guy Pratt, and Charlie Dore, which reached number 1 and spent three weeks at the top of the charts. The accompanying album Growing Up In Public peaked at number 2 in the UK Album Charts and featured guest appearances from Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Elliot Randall, and George Harrison. His third album, Crocodile Shoes, released in conjunction with the television series of the same name, peaked at number 2 and sold over one million copies, with singles including the title track at number 4, "Cowboy Dreams," and "Calling Out Your Name." His fourth album, Big River, reached number 8, and its title track, a tribute to Newcastle, peaked at number 18 and featured Mark Knopfler as guest guitarist. The track is regularly played before kick-off at Newcastle United's home ground, St James' Park. Subsequent releases included Crocodile Shoes II in 1996, which peaked at number 10, the 1997 compilation The Nail File: The Best of Jimmy Nail, and Tadpoles In A Jar in 1999, which reached number 79. His 2001 album Ten Great Songs and an OK Voice comprised songs written by other artists. Nail also sang on the film soundtrack for Evita and received a double-platinum disc in recognition of over 600,000 sales of that album.

On screen, Nail played the title role in the BBC drama Spender from 1991 to 1993 and portrayed Jed Shepperd in Crocodile Shoes from 1994 to 1996. He played gamekeeper Rabbetts in the 1989 television film Danny, the Champion of the World, based on the Roald Dahl novel, and took on the role of Agustín Magaldi in the 1996 film adaptation of Evita, which brought him international recognition. In 1998 he played Les Wickes in the Columbia Pictures film Still Crazy. Nail also worked as an extra on the 1971 British gangster film Get Carter, a detail he confirmed in his 2004 autobiography A Northern Soul, in which he also recounted later joking about the experience with Get Carter director Mike Hodges when the two worked together on Morons From Outer Space in 1985. On 5 February 2012, Nail joined Sting on stage at Sage, Gateshead, to perform "Every Breath You Take."

Nail made his Broadway debut in 2014, appearing in The Last Ship, a production connected to his hometown of Benton, England. Together with Tim Healy, Nail co-founded the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund in 1999, established in memory of their friend and colleague Sammy Johnson to support young talent in North East England. By 2021 the fund had distributed over £600,000 in bursaries and support, and Nail participated in the Sunday for Sammy benefit concerts in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 before resigning from the board due to work commitments.