Why do celebrities spend years trying to become famous and when it happens wear dark glasses so they can't be recognised?

This page features profiles of famous Warrington people connected with entertainment and the media.

Sporting Warringtonians are featured in Sporting People.
Warrington Wolves rugby players are featured on the Warrington Wolves page.
For profiles on other famous people, see the Warrington People page.

The profiles cover some aspects of their lives beyond the boundaries of Warrington.
They are presented in date of birth order, and listed alphabetically by surname in the table below.
If you think somebody should be included, let me know!

Note: some of this material is from Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. Please see the foot of the Feedback page 
for important copyright information. mywarrington is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Percy Francis Phillips was born in March 1896, in Warrington. Phillips was a veteran of the First World War, and left the British Army (Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) at the rank of Corporal in 1918, due to him being wounded before the war ended.

After the war, he started selling bicycles and motorbikes in a small shop in Brunswick Street, in the Kensington Fields area of Liverpool. He began selling and recharging batteries in 1925, opening a shop in the front room of his family's three-storey Georgian terraced house, called Phillips’ Battery Charging Depot, and had to install large accumulators in the cellar. Phillips ran the business for 30 years, even during WWII, but due to a decline in demand for batteries in the early 1950s (most people having electricity by then) he started selling household electrical goods. By late 1954, the shop was only selling records and record players; customers would buy recordings of American Country and Western, and Big Band music. As Phillips had supplied batteries to the Burtonwood air base during the war, he could buy and sell the latest records from America via his contacts there.

In 1955, several customers asked if Phillips could make demo discs, so he bought various items of equipment and set up a recording studio. Phillips advertised the studio as Phillips' Sound Recording Services (also advertised as P. F. Phillips' Professional Tape & Disc Recording Service) and his business cards read, "PF Phillips, 38 Kensington, Liverpool, 7. Television and Battery Service. Gramophone Record Dealer. Professional Tape and Disc Recording Studio."

Phillips' first recording was of himself singing "Bonnie Marie of Argyle", (unaccompanied) and a few days later he recorded "Unchained Melody", with local dance band singer Betty Roy. The first disc he cut in the studio was on 7 August, 1955, with his eight-year-old daughter, Carol, singing "Mr Sandman". All the discs had "Play with a light-weight pick-up" on the label, as this would increase the life of the disc which would eventually wear out.

His client list included, in 1958, The Quarrymen (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John 'Duff' Lowe and Colin Hanton) who recorded "That‘ll Be The Day", and "In Spite of All the Danger" in the studio. Other clients included Billy Fury, Ken Dodd, and Marty Wilde. Later customers of Phillips’ studio included The Swinging Blue Jeans, Brian Epstein, Freddie Starr, Willy Russell, Liverpool F.C. supporters club, and players from Everton F.C.

Phillips closed the studio in 1969 and the record shop in 1974. He died in 1984 at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. The recording of The Quarrymen acetate and the site of Phillips' Sound Recording Services was commemorated in 26 August 2005, when a Blue Plaque was unveiled by two of The Quarrymen (Lowe and Hanton) on the front of the house.    Read more in Wikipedia.

George was born in Wigan, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). His father (born James Booth) was George Formby (Senior) (1875-1921), one of the great music hall comedians of his day. On the death of his father in 1921, George abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material.

He spent part of his life at Hillcrest on London Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington, leaving in 1924. In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career until her death from leukaemia on 24 December 1960. Some of his best-known songs were written by Noel Gay. The Window Cleaner song was about a real-life window cleaner John Edwin Marlow. His (John's) grandson is my friend, Myles Crozier,  a member of Warrington Male Voice Choir.

He made his first record in 1932 with the Jack Hylton Band, and his first sound film Boots! Boots! in 1934 (Formby had appeared in a sole silent film in 1915). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 with Associated Talking Pictures, earning him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year. Between 1934 and 1945 George was the top box-office attraction in British cinema. He appeared in the 1937 Royal Variety Show, and entertained troops with ENSA in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He received an OBE in 1946.

His most popular film, and still regarded as probably his best, is the espionage comedy Let George Do It, in which he is a member of a concert party, takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway as a secret agent. George suffered his first heart attack in 1951. His funeral was held in St Charles' Church in Aigburth, Liverpool, and an estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to Warrington cemetery, where he was buried in the Booth family grave.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Astley served in the Second World War as a musician playing saxophone and clarinet for the troops. He married Hazel Balbirnie in 1945 who is the great aunt of Jason (de-Vaux) Balbirnie (who also recorded music and performed in the 1980s). Their eldest daughter Karen Astley married Pete Townshend of The Who, and their son Jon Astley produced and remastered The Who's reissues. Daughter Virginia Astley is a singer-songwriter.

In the early 1950s Astley was arranging for Geraldo, and his song "I Never Could Tell" was recorded by both Vera Lynn and Richard Tauber. His own band, the Ted Astley Orchestra, became well known in the north of England, and he wrote songs for performers such as Anne Shelton.

He wrote music for many British television series of the 50s and 60s, including incidental music for The Champions, and the title music to The Adventures of Robin Hood (but not the famous closing theme song), Danger Man (known as Secret Agent in the USA, where his theme music was removed in favour of a theme with lyrics), Department S, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Saint, Gideon's Way and The Baron. Most of these programmes were part of Lew Grade's showbiz empire of ATV and ITC Entertainment. These TV themes are noted for their rich melodies and lively arrangements.

Astley also wrote two themes for Danger Man — one for the 30 minute series entitled "The Danger Man Theme", and a new theme for the 60 minute series entitled "High Wire". Astley was asked to write music for The Prisoner, seen as a sequel of sorts to Danger Man, but had to withdraw because he felt that he would be unable to create Patrick McGoohan's vision for the score — due to McGoohan being too busy to hold meetings with him.

However, Astley showed his diversity by writing the music for Sir Kenneth Clark's celebrated 1969 BBC documentary series Civilisation, and scoring several British Transport Films including Diesel Train Ride (1959), Broad Waterways (1959/60) and The Signal Engineers (1962).

In 1997 Astley found himself at number five on the pop charts as composer of "The Saint", thirty-three years after he wrote it, which had been revived by Orbital for the new Saint movie. His last work was a 1998 symphonic interpretation of Who music called Who's Serious: The Symphonic Music of the Who, which followed 1995's Symphonic Music Of The Rolling Stones.

Astley retired in the late 1970s, and died in 1998.    Read more in Wikipedia

I met him in the 1990s in his capacity as compere at the Butlin's Grand Hotel in Llandudno when I was assisting with Friends and Neighbours Travel Club, a company which organised holidays for the elderly. One of the funniest things he did before the main entertainment show on a Monday and Wednesday was to tell everybody exactly what had happened in Coronation Street that evening, quoting the script word for word and putting his comic touch to it. He was a good friend of Edna Savage, profiled below.

Peter's funeral service was held on 11 July, 2003 at St James Church, Latchford.

Barbara Law is a singer who was born in Warrington in the 1940s. She was a great friend of the late Edna Savage and attended the same school as her, Richard Fairclough Secondary School. She performed in many TV and radio shows on the BBC in the north from the late 1950s to the 1990s, as well as making many records. In June 1957 she crowned Hazel Jones as the Lymm May Queen. In 1959 she appeared as herself in David Croft’s One O’clock Show for Tyne Tees Television in northeast England. The show was on five days a week and ran for 1098 episodes between 1959 and 1964. She has also won the Tyne Tees Television personality of the year award.

She was selected by the BBC in London to represent Great Britain in the ‘Nord Ring Song Festivals’, which resulted in her broadcasting with many European orchestras. In 1980 she sang a song called New Town on the Fanfare record label. The B-side was called We Remember Warrington and featured various people from the town, along with Warrington Youth Band. She made a special Christmas appearance at Ryfields Retirement Village at the end of 2008 where she gave a cabaret performance to the residents. She now lives in Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands near Spain.

Sue Johnston (born 7 December, 1943 in Warrington) is a British actress. From 1982-1990, she appeared as Shelia Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. Other dramas include Inspector Morse, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Brassed Off, My Uncle Silas, and Waking the Dead. However, she is well-remembered for her role as Barbara Royle in the comedy series The Royle Family. In this role, she appeared alongside her former on-screen husband in Brookside, Ricky Tomlinson.

In 2004, she appeared in the series, Who Do You Think You Are? for the BBC, in which she traced back her family tree. Part of that research brought her to the Railway Club on Winwick Street. Prior to becoming an actor, Sue was a tax inspector. An avid fan of Liverpool Football Club, Sue Johnston has also campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. In the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours she was presented with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to drama and to charity. She said she was 'delighted and honoured' to receive the OBE and was sorry her parents weren't there, as they would have been so proud. In November 2010 she received a Doctor of Letters from Chester University in recognition for her outstanding contribution to television, drama and the performing arts.   Some information from Wikipedia.

Peter William Postlethwaite (born 16 February, 1946 in Warrington, died 2 January, 2011 in Shropshire) to parents William & Mary Geraldine Postlethwaite. He was brought up in the Norris Street area of Orford and also lived in Padgate. One of his favourite pubs was The Lower Angel in Buttermarket Street. He enrolled in acting classes when he was 24. Postlethwaite was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting troupes by the time he became known in the United States through his film and television roles. He trained at the world-famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

He did a short stint as a teacher before following his passion for the stage, but had originally planned to be a priest. He started out in acting by touring pubs in a theatre group with his then girlfriend, Julie Walters. He spent some of his acting life at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, working alongside future stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Alan Bleasedale and Bill Nighy.

On the screen he had parts on Coronation Street, Minder and Casualty. He is also well known for his role as Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in the period television drama series, Sharpe, alongside Sean Bean. On the big screen he appeared in Last of the Mohicans, and Alien 3. Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role of Giuseppe Conlon in In the Name of the Father in 1993. The story followed the lives of the wrongly-convicted 'Guildford Four' pub bombers and starred Daniel Day-Lewis.

Other films included The Usual Suspects, where he played the mysterious lawyer "Kobayashi", and Brassed Off, set in a Yorkshire mining community. Other roles include a part in Steven Spielberg's Amistad. Spielberg, who also worked with Postlethwaite on The Lost World; Jurassic Park, once described him as "the best actor in the world". Pete modestly laughed off the comment by saying "it sounds like an advert for lager and it's only one man's opinion".

Pete was made an OBE in 2004 for his services to drama, which he described as a "complete shock". In 2006 he received an honorary degree from Liverpool John Moores University. He returned to the Everyman Theatre at Liverpool to play the lead in King Lear, one of the highlights of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture.

Away from acting, he was also a political activist: he marched against the Iraq War and supported the Make Poverty History campaign.

Pete Postlethwaite died on Sunday, 2 January 2011 after a struggle with cancer. A friend said that he passed away peacefully.

friend and journalist said he passed away peacefully in a Shropshire hospital. He was aged 64.

On 1 September 2011, the Pete Postlethwaite Studio was opened at the Pyramid Arts Centre on Palmyra Square South to inspire future actors and performers. It is hoped to install a willow statue in Orford Park, close to where he was born in Norris Street.

   Some information from  Wikipedia.

Timothy James Curry (born 19 April, 1946, in Grappenhall, Warrington) is an English actor, singer and composer, perhaps best known for his role as mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). He also had an earlier career as a rock musician. Tim Curry's father, James, was a Methodist chaplain for the British navy. Upon his father's death in 1958, Curry relocated to south London.

He studied Drama and English at Birmingham from age 19, and then at Cambridge. At Birmingham he also acted with the renowned Guild Theatre Group. Curry's first full-time acting role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968. Here he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to create his next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles and New York until 1975.

He cites Billie Holiday as his major musical influence, saying that he "listened to nothing but her records for two years" during a period of teenage depression as he contemplated on "which gloomy Sunday afternoon I was going to throw myself under a car". In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album, Read My Lips. The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album, Fearless. Curry's third and final album, Simplicity, was released in 1981, again by A&M Records.

In 1979, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in a London stage version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole. In 1981, he formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In late 2004, he began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. The show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005.

TV and movie credits include Jerome K. Jerome in the BBC TV movie Three Men in a Boat (1975), Dr. Petrov in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Gomez Addams in Addams Family Reunion (1998), Roger Corwin in Charlie's Angels (2000) and Trymon in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008).     Read more in Wikipedia.

On TV he presented a series of programmes for Channel 4/Discovery Channel about his other passion: railways. The programme was called Waterman on Railways and he also has a passion for model railways. In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December, 2004, he was given an OBE for his services to music.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Matthew Corbett (real name Peter Corbett, born 28 March, 1948 in Yorkshire) is an English television personality known for The Sooty Show. He took over Sooty from his father, Harry Corbett in 1976. Once Matthew retired in the late-1990s, he hand-picked Richard Cadell to replace him. He also appeared in the 1971 Doctor Who serial, The Dæmons, and appeared in the children's show Rainbow for a number of years in the mid-1970s before his Sooty days.

He now lives in south Warrington, and in November 2006 became the Press Officer in a protest from boat owners on the Bridgewater Canal about the owner's price hikes on licences and mooring fee charges. He plays guitar with his musical partner, keyboard player and vocalist John Gray, around the pubs and clubs of the land. In 2007 he presented a series for ITV Granada sailing the length of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.    Some information from Wikipedia.

Peter Charles McCarthy Robinson (9 November, 1951 - 6 October, 2004), was a British broadcaster and successful travel writer. He was born in Warrington, the son of an Irish mother and an English father. When he was 14, he decided to become a writer, but instead ended up in the comedy business after going to the University of Leicester, teaching and travelling. He co-founded the Cliffhanger Theatre in Brighton.

His popularity increased as he wrote comedy scripts for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones. He then went on a comedy tour of Britain and Australia with Roger McGough. His most successful radio show was X Marks the Spot on BBC Radio 4, which he presented. He presented the Channel 4 TV travel show Travelog. His television career after that included Country Tracks on BBC2 and The Pier on Meridian Television. One of his most popular series was Desperately Seeking Something, a look at various spiritual movements.  

In 2002, he won the Newcomer of the Year award at the British Book Awards and the humorous travel book, McCarthy's Bar, sold over a million copies. He followed with The Road to McCarthy  about his travels to remote places around the world in search of Irish connections. He was diagnosed with cancer early in 2004, and died of the disease in October of that year at the age of 52. After his death, his old friend Roger McGough wrote a poem about him called November the Fifth.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Trained as a photo-journalist in the Midlands. Managing Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees as well as presenting the West End musicals of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 1976, with drummer Jon Moss (later of The Damned and Culture Club), guitarist Dave Wight (real name Colin Wight) and bassist Steve Voice (real name), Tredinnick formed the punk band London with himself as lead singer and chief songwriter. He supported The Stranglers on a nationwide tour.

He made uncredited appearances in many films including Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1, Flash Gordon, Lady Jane, Octopussy, Hawk the Slayer, Ragtime, Chariots of Fire, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Whoops Apocalypse, Who Dares Wins, Britannia Hospital, Ivanhoe and TV series’ Minder and The Professionals. Tredinnick wrote regular stage and television scripts for Frankie Howerd, including the hour-long special, Superfrank! for Channel 4.

In 1986 Tredinnick started writing for the international Disney Magazine, creating cartoon stories for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and other well-known Walt Disney characters. In 1987/8 he created and wrote the BBC1 comedy series Wyatt's Watchdogs. This led to an invitation to write for the Alomo/BBCTV show Birds of a Feather. Tredinnick's first novel Fripp was published in 2001.

Miles Tredinnick lives in London and works for The Big Bus Company training tour guides in London, Dubai, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In this role he's been featured in BBC TV shows Generation X (2001) and Facing the Music with David and Carrie Grant (2005).

Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE (born 8 November, 1958 in Wellington, New Zealand). He lived in Appleton in the 1970s. He is a screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. On TV he has written the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley, and was also part of scriptwriting team on the BBC sketch show Not The Nine O’clock News from 1979 to 1982. He is also the founder of the British charity Comic Relief and Make Poverty History. He organised the Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof to publicise poverty, particularly in Africa, and pressure G8 leaders to adopt his proposals for ending it. In May 2007 he received the BAFTA Fellowship at the British Academy Television Awards in recognition of his successful career in film and television and his charity efforts.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Ian Brown (born 20 February, 1963 in Warrington) is a musician and former lead singer of The Stone Roses, a popular indie rock band. Since the Roses broke up in 1996, Brown has released 4 solo albums to critical acclaim across Britain. He has appeared on several club tours and has performed at the Glastonbury Festival three times since 1998. He grew up in Timperley, south Manchester.

He was a great admirer of Mohammad Ali, George Best and Bruce Lee, and learned karate. His interest in music was inspired by the original punk bands, specifically the Sex Pistols but also the likes of Angelic Upstarts and The Clash. He also loved northern soul music and attended all-night events across the north of England. He joined The Patrol on bass before it disbanded, and eventually became singer to the newly-formed The Stone Roses in about 1984.

In 2005 Brown headlined The Other Stage on the closing night of Glastonbury Festival to great acclaim, playing five Stone Roses classics and ending the festival in great style. In his solo career, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Brown appeared in a cameo role in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

In 2002, Q magazine named Ian Brown in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", although this was part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way". He undertook a sell out UK tour in 2005, including the 25,000-capacity Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena on 3 December, 2005. In the 2006 NME awards, Brown was presented with the "Godlike Genius" award.

In 2011 Ian reunited The Stone Roses, 15 years after they broke up, for a world tour in 2012, beginning with two concerts at Heaton Park, Manchester, in June 2012.    Some information from in Wikipedia.

Martin studied Electronic Engineering at Bradford University between 1982-86 and was a DJ on Ramair, the university's radio station. During this time he developed a love of Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran that is still seen in his legacy haircut. Martin has been working as a property developer since the early 1990s and he now owns a specialist investment property company. Martin also edits the travel section of Woman magazine as well as contributing to several other publications either on the subject of property development or travel.

In July 2010, Roberts entered the BBC television programme Celebrity MasterChef, though he was eliminated at the first opportunity having performed superbly well on the ingredient recognition task, but failed to cook the sage he served with liver. He remains unmarried and lives in the southwest of England.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Andy Bird (born 3 January, 1964 in Warrington) is the Chairman of Walt Disney International. Bird grew up in Warrington, and was schooled at King's School, Macclesfield. In 1985 Bird gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature at Newcastle University.

Bird first started his career in broadcasting as the breakfast show producer on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio. He later moved to London working for Richard Branson's Virgin Broadcasting Company, working on their music television channel Music Box and satellite radio station Radio Radio. Next was British Satellite Broadcasting's The Power Station channel. Bird joined Time Warner in 1994 as senior vice president and general manager of Turner Entertainment Networks Limited. In 2000 he became president of TBS International in 2000, being responsible for all TBS broadcasting outside of the United States.

In 2004 Bird joined The Walt Disney Company and has since overseen the acquisition of Hungama TV in India and investment in India's UTV. He also localizes content and has reorganized Disney's international structure and leadership ranks.    Read more in Wikipedia.

John Harold Arnold Bramwell (born 27 November, 1964 in Warrington) is a singer-songwriter. He is the frontman for the three-piece alternative rock band I Am Kloot. He grew up in Werneth Low near Hyde, Greater Manchester. In the early years, John was the front man of a four piece band called The Ignition who toured in the early to late 1980s. Following that he became solo performer and Granada Television presenter Johnny Dangerously, known for fronting a local Saturday morning magazine programme Fresh that gave one of the first TV outings for KFM Radio personality Caroline Aherne in her Mrs. Merton role.  In this guise he also released You Me and the Alarm Clock, named in The Guardian newspaper as one of "greatest albums you've never heard". He also released a single with The DeBuschias.

During his period with Granada Television he was engaged to Fresh co-presenter Tara Newley, daughter of Joan Collins and Anthony Newley. After leaving Granada, John spent many years travelling between Athens and North Wales where he continued to write and perform songs solo before giving up music to deliver glue around the U.K. In the early 1990's John formed The Mouth with friend and musician Bryan Glancy (the titular Seldom Seen Kid) that later included members of I Am Kloot - Andy Hargreaves and Peter Jobson. The Mouth first played live at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California and on returning from America, John worked booking bands at Manchester venue Night & Day Café during the mid to late 1990's. In 1999 he formed I Am Kloot. The band released their first single Titanic/To You as a 7" double A side single in 1999 and their debut album Natural History in 2001 - both produced by Guy Garvey from Elbow.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Chris Evans (born 1 April, 1966, in Orford, Warrington) is a radio and television presenter and producer.

Evans started his broadcasting career in 1985 at Manchester's Piccadilly Radio as an assistant to Timmy Mallett, and playing a character on his show called Nobby Nolevel (No 'O' Level). After working as a producer on Richard Branson's service Radio Radio, Evans went on to work at the BBC London radio station GLR, first of all as a producer on Emma Freud's mid-morning show. He went on to produce Danny Baker's weekend breakfast show. Evans became a presenter on the station in early 1990, taking over a Saturday afternoon show.

In March 1992, Evans began presenting a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1, replacing Phillip Schofield who had previously broadcast in the slot. The show ended in September 1992. His next break was The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 from 28 September, 1992. He left The Big Breakfast on 29 September, 1994, and formed his own production company, Ginger Productions. Its first major programme, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, was broadcast on Channel 4 between 1994 and 1995.

In April 1995 Evans joined BBC Radio 1 to host the flagship breakfast show. His spell at the station ended in 1977 when he failed to turn up to work, following a long-running dispute over his demand to take Fridays off, in part to pursue commitments he had taken on as the host of Channel 4's TFI Friday programme, which had commenced in 1996. Evans returned to Virgin Radio to host the breakfast show from 13 October, 1997. In December that year, with the assistance of investors, he bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson, for £85m, and formed the Ginger Media Group, to control the interests both of Ginger Productions and Virgin Radio.

During the last quarter of 1999, Evans ran separate quizzes on his radio show and on TFI Friday, both called Who's Going To Be A Millionaire? The £1million prize was awarded on radio on 17 December and on television on 24 December, the first million pound prizes on British TV and Radio, beating ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by ten months. He was dismissed from Virgin Radio in 2001 and later tried, and failed, to sue the company for unfair dismissal in 2003.

In August 2002, Chris Evans set up a radio and television production company, UMTV. TV shows include Johnny Vegas: 18 Stone of Idiot for Channel 4/E4 and OFI Sunday for ITV. In early May 2006, he was named Music Radio Personality of the Year. He has previously been married to Carol McGiffin ('Loose Women', ITV1) and Billie Piper ('Doctor Who', BBC1).

Read more in Wikipedia. 

Polly Walker (born 19 May, 1966, in Warrington) is an English actress. Walker's first school was Silverdale Preparatory West Acton, London. Walker began her career as a dancer, but had to abandon dancing after an injury at the age of 18. She moved from the Drama Centre in London to the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played bit parts for six months before graduating to small roles on television.

Walker landed the title role in the television series Lorna Doone before making her feature debut in Shogun Mayeda (1991). She first gained international attention as a single-minded English member of an Irish terrorist group in Phillip Noyce's Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. In late 2005, she played Atia of the Julii in the first season of the HBO/BBC2 television series Rome. Her performance earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama.    Read more in Wikipedia.

A fruitful work experience placement in the puppet and prop-making department on Aardman Animations' Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit production A Close Shave landed Jobling a role as puppet painter on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! But Jobling's most universal acclaim was born out of his role in the making of children's TV hit, Bob The Builder, on which he is production designer, the hand behind all of that programme's inimitable characters and sets.

As an author and illustrator of children's books, his most (in)famous character can quite easily be recognised as Frankenstein's Cat, the muddled up feline and star of his own animated show. His company, Bada Bling Ltd, specializes in the development of film and animation content, covering all aspects of production. Collaborators include such industry notables as acclaimed animation director Ian Culbard, glam rock-loving comic scribe Ian Carney, premier puppet makers Mackinnon & Saunders, (Corpse Bride), and Seed Animation Studio. Children's books include Frankenstein's Cat, Dinosaurs After Dark (with Jonathan Emmett), My Daddy, Cheeky Monkey, and The Skeleton in the Closet (with Alice Schertle).    Read more in Wikipedia. See also his official website.

He attended Selwyn Jones High School in St. Helens and turned his attention mainly to playing Rugby League, before rekindling his performance interests and successfully applying to Bretton Hall. After graduation he relocated to London and was briefly active in Fringe Theatre (Appearing in Lead Roles in Chekhov's The Bear and The Proposal) before turning his hand to comedy.

In 2007 Ray began presenting his iTunes & Chortle-hosted The Ray Peacock Podcast alongside Ed Gamble and Raji James, which was available to download on iTunes and at www.chortle.co.uk/raypeacock. Ray Peacock's second podcast: The Peacock and Gamble Podcast can be found on the same website.

Ray made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, originally as a brash Yorkshireman character who soon became a regular act on the live circuit. In his 2006 show at the Edinburgh Festival the character was dropped in all but name and Ray delivered a confessional stand-up show entitled "Out of Character".

He is a fanatical supporter of St Helens RLFC, comic book collector and an accomplished artist.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Chris Braide (born 6 February, 1973 in Padgate, Warrington) is a singer, songwriter, record producer published by Sony/ATV worldwide.

Producer, songwriter and Ivor Novello and ASCAP winner, Chris Braide has achieved considerable success as a songwriter in the UK and the US. He is one of few British songwriters of late to reach multi million record sales in the United States. In a 2005 article for GQ magazine, Braide featured among the most successful and influential men in the music business under the age of 40.

At the age of 16 Braide secured his first publishing contract with Zomba Music Publishing. In an interview with HitQuarters he cited this as his career breakthrough because, in his words, it "opened up the world to me". Leaving his hometown of Warrington he moved down to London, where he signed to Polydor Records as a recording artist. His first residence in the capital was at the home of songwriter Cathy Dennis who, at the time, was also signed to Polydor as an artist.

In 1993, Chris recorded his debut album "Chapter One" for Polydor Records. The album was produced by Thomas Dolby and Mick Hucknall and recorded at the residential studio Condulmer in Italy.

In 1996, Braide signed a new solo deal with East West Records. The label released the singles "If I Hadn't Got You" and "Heavenly Rain" followed a year later by the album, Life In A Minor Key which was co-produced by Chris and David A. Stewart at Electric Lady Studios in New York. "If I Hadn't Got You" was released in the US in 1998 by Atlantic Records after chairman Craig Kallman saw Braide performing an acoustic show in London. The video's for both singles were filmed in New York and New Orleans.

In 2009, Warner Music reissued the Life In A Minor Key album and both singles as digital downloads. In 2010, Braide Productions released Life in a Minor Key - Deluxe Edition. This 16 track edition of the album contains previously unreleased tracks, demos and reworkings of those on the original album.  

In 2010 he announced he was emigrating to Los Angles. See the October 2010 edition of Warrington-Worldwide magazine for more.

Read more in Wikipedia

Wainwright (born Michael Wainwright on 6 March, 1973 in Warrington). He is a singer-songwriter, who as young boy, relocated to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He began playing guitar when he was 12. He founded the band “Flat Broke” in high school along with his brother Paul. Since the mid-1990s, Wainwright has also played guitar, assuming the role of John Lennon in The Caverners, a Beatles cover band. Wainwright released his first 6-song EP in 2002. It was co-produced by Niagara Falls producer and studio owner Dean Malton at Groundloop Productions. The track Radio On placed second (out of 5,000 entries) in Toronto's Mix 99.9 13th annual songwriting competition.

Wainwright met producer Charlton Pettus in 2004 and began recording songs which eventually became the album "Wainwright", released in February 2008 on Town Records. Guest musicians include Russ Irwin (Aerosmith) on keyboards, Curt Smith (Tears for Fears) on vocals, and Fred Eltringham (The Wallflowers, Dixie Chicks) on drums. The album also features guest singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno (a John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner) on two tracks. “Wainwright” was mastered by Ted Jensen (Norah Jones, Metallica) at Sterling Sound. The album artwork was created by artist Alan Aldridge (Beatles, Elton John).  

He has contributed to various songs. 2007: contributed three songs to the soundtrack of Moving McAllister, starring Ben Gourley, John Heder, Mila Kunis, and Rutger Hauer: Across the World, World To Bring Me Down and Can’t Believe My Eyes. He also contributed backing vocals for Los Angeles-based band Sleeping Masses, fronted by lead singer Patrick Muldoon.

In 2008 Can't Believe My Eyes was licensed by EA sports for the video game The Sims 2: Apartment Life. Also, Across The World was licensed by NBC's show Las Vegas (TV series) for its DVD release. Also in 2008, he won the Niagara Music Award for "Best Male Vocalist".

In May 2008, Wainwright launched his Guitar and a Car tour, which has taken him across Canada, the United States, and (in October 2008) to the United Kingdom. He’s documenting the tour online via the Guitar And A Car website. Tears for Fears co-founder Curt Smith announced that Wainwright will open for the group on most of its 2009 West Coast tour dates.

Read more Wikipedia.

Steven Arnold (born 12 December, 1974 in Warrington) is an actor best known for his role as Ashley Peacock in Coronation Street.

He was educated at Sir Thomas Boteler High School in Warrington, where his drama teacher suggested he went up for a part in a National Film and Television School production called This Boy's Story. This film went on to win a British Academy Film & Television Award (BAFTA) for best short film in 1991. Steven and his younger brother, Kevin, then both appeared in the Granada Television series Children's Ward.

He later worked on the medical information film Growing Pains before making his BBC debut as a courier in the Patricia Routledge series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. He played a character called Rob in an episode of The Bill and a role in Common As Muck before returning to Granada to play Darren in the medical series Medics with Tom Baker and Sue Johnston. In 1996 he made his debut on ITVs Coronation Street as Ashley Peacock and soon he was made a regular character, marrying Maxine Heavey, who was eventually murdered by Richard Hillman. Ashley then married Clare Casey in 2004. He left Coronation Street in 2010 when his character was killed off in the tram crash story. He appeared in ITV1's Dancing On Ice in January 2011.

Steven, who still lives in Warrington, has also played Neil in You, Me and Manley and has worked on the BBC Radio 4 play The Distance Between Stars. He is a patron for The Shannon Bradshaw Trust, a Warrington based Children's Charity helping children with life threatening conditions and their families, www.shannonstrust.org.uk.

Bisson appeared in the Channel 5 films Perfect Day: The Wedding (2005), Perfect Day: The Funeral (2007) and the feature film Stepdad (filmed in February 2007). He participated in the Channel 4 Documentary Empire's Children (2007) tracing his paternal heritage to Trinidad in the West Indies. His recent television appearances have been on the Valentine's Day 2009 episode of Casualty, and on the latest series of Hotel Babylon. He returned to Shameless in April 2009 for one episode. In September 2009, Bisson joined the cast of Emmerdale as part of the newly cast Sharma family.    Read more in Wikipedia.

Warren Brown (born 11 May, 1978 in Warrington) is an actor and former professional Thai boxer. After appearing in two episodes of the television series Shameless, Warren played the evil Andy Holt in Channel 4's teen soap opera Hollyoaks. Although he was 27 years old at the time, his youthful good looks were said to have helped him win the role of the student. It is arguably his most famous role to date. Brown was nominated for a number of awards for his performance in the show including Best Villain, Most Spectacular Scene and Best Exit at the 2006 British Soap Awards. Brown's character Holt met his demise in February 2006. He is also known for his role as Lee Hibbs in the three-part BBC drama series Occupation written by Peter Bowker.

Brown won a role in the short-lived ITV show Jane Hall in the summer of 2006. This was followed in March 2007 by his role as Tommo in ITV's Mobile. Also in 2007 he starred as Chris in one episode of Casualty. In September 2007 he starred in the second series of BBC Three's Grownups, playing barman, Alex Salade and has played the part since. In the 2009 Comic Relief special of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, which was a crossover between Grownups, Two Pints and Coming of Age, he played Alex again.

In 2008 Brown was the voiceover for the film trailer on the soon to be released Gomez: A True Story based on the life of boxer Michael Gomez and starring Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher. In October 2008, Brown played the role of Marky in E4's zombie drama Dead Set. In November 2008 he again appeared in Casualty, but playing a different character than the one he played in 2007. In 2009 Brown appeared in the three-part BBC TV Iraq war drama Occupation, alongside James Nesbitt and Stephen Graham. Recently he has appeared in two episodes of The Bill playing Jake Clegg, who is a part of the operation of trafficking young girls illegally. These episodes were titled "The Forgotten Child".

In May 2010, he appeared as the regular character of DS Justin Ripley in the BBC TV drama Luther. Brown appears in the Deadmau5 music video for the song "I Remember". As of September 2010, Brown will appear in the BBC drama "A Single Father", as Matt.

Read more in Wikipedia.

Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona (previously McFadden; born 6 September, 1980 in Warrington) is a singer, actress, author and television presenter. Best known for her television work, predominantly in light entertainment and reality shows, she has also been a pop singer with girl group Atomic Kitten, which had been created by former OMD frontman Andy McCluskey in 1999. She has also been a magazine columnist and published an autobiography and several novels. In February 2004, she won the third series of the British reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Between 2007 and 2009, Katona was the subject of three MTV reality shows.

Read more in Wikipedia.

Darren Jeffries born in Wrexham in 1982 (exact DOB unknown) is a British actor who is predominantly known for playing Sam 'OB' O'Brien in the TV show Hollyoaks since 1997. He is a former pupil at Padgate High School, and its adjoining college, in Warrington. At The 2008 British Soap Awards, Darren and Matt Littler (Max Cunningham) won The Best On-Screen Partnership Award for their roles in Hollyoaks. Darren left Hollyoaks in March 2008. He currently co-presents with Matt Littler on Lancashire-based radio station "Rock FM", and presents "The Vs Chart" on 4Music.    Read more from Wikipedia.

George William Sampson (born 29 June, 1993 in Warrington) is a street dancer and was the winner of the second series of Britain's Got Talent on 31 May 2008, aged 14. As a prize, he received £100,000 and the opportunity to perform at the 2008 Royal Variety Performance, staged at the London Palladium on 11 December 2008 (broadcast on BBC One on 17 December).

In 2007, Sampson auditioned during the first round of Britain's Got Talent after a dance teacher told him there were auditions in the area that would be right up his alley. He only discovered it was for Britain's Got Talent when he arrived. In his audition, he danced to Drop (Timbaland feat. Magoo & Fatman Scoop), but despite Simon Cowell's enthusiasm, he was unable to convince the other two judges, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, to let Sampson proceed to the live semi finals. This experience made Sampson determined to enter the 2008 auditions and prove Holden and Morgan wrong. In the intervening time he continued dancing on the streets of Manchester to improve his technique, and to raise money for his family.

Sampson got through the Britain's Got Talent auditions in 2008 by dancing to "Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)". He then came top in the audience's vote in his semi-final with his arrangement of Mint Royale's big beat remix of "Singin' in the Rain", complete with an artificial rain machine onstage, a formula that had previously been produced in a television advertisement for the Volkswagen Golf GTI. He subsequently won the audience's vote in the final, beating dancers Signature (second place) and Andrew Johnston (third place). He broke into tears when his win was announced. Sampson was due to perform a different routine for the final, to a track by the Bee Gees, which he described as involving "a lot of movement without me actually doing anything". An hour before the final started he changed his mind and, after consulting Simon Cowell, opted to perform his winning act from the semi-final again. The Mint Royale version of "Singin' In The Rain" went to number 1 in the UK on download sales alone in the week following Sampson's performance and Simon Cowell's label SyCo was bombarded with requests from fans to make a video for the song. It is the first time SyCo has signed up a non-singing act solely to make a video.

In an interview the day after the final, Sampson told of his return to normality the Monday after the event. Since the show he has been involved in many projects, from TV adverts to stage shows in the West End, plus music and DVD releases. He switched on the Christmas lights in Warrington in the year he won Britain’s Got Talent.

In 2011 he appeared in the BBC1 drama, Waterloo Road.        Some information from Wikipedia.

Dean McGonagle (born 1994 in Great Sankey, Warrington). In 2004 and 2006 he appeared in the British soap opera Emmerdale playing the character Luke Dingle. He also played Jamie Quinn in The Street in 2006. In 2007 he starred as Will in Channel 4's Shameless.

Read more in Wikipedia.