| Fine Time Fontayne | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ian Crossley 1951 (age 72–73) Wombwell, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, theatre director |
Ian Crossley (born 1951), better known by the stage name Fine Time Fontayne, is an English actor and stage director.
Early life
Fontayne was born in Wombwell, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire) into a mining family. In the 1960s, he moved with his parents and brothers to Sheffield, where they ran a pub. He took his stage name when he began singing and playing at a local folk club in Yorkshire. He had previously called himself Ordinary Seaman Whittle. He started acting in the 1970s with the Crucible Vanguard Company.
Career
In the early years of his career Fontayne worked in cabaret, community and repertory theatre, as well as the Red Ladder Theatre Company. He has played a variety of roles in many long-running British TV series such as All Creatures Great and Small, Coronation Street, Emmerdale as well as both Heartbeat playing the role of a journalist on the Ashfordly Gazette and The Royal in which he appeared as Nobby Jepson, an ex-coal miner turned "back setter," in the episode Consequences.
He is a frequent voice in BBC Radio dramas (including The Blackburn Files and Street and Lane) and has appeared in films including 24 Hour Party People and Butterfly Kiss.
Fontayne appeared in the 2002 radio series The Little World of Don Camillo. He directed a successful production of Sleeping Beauty at the Mercury Theatre, Essex in December 2007 and January 2008. In February 2020, Fontayne portrayed the role of Ned Wainwright in the BBC soap opera Doctors.
Fontayne was also a regular feature in Oldham Colliseum's annual pantomime, co-writing and performing as the pantomime dame in productions of Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty and Mother Goose.
In 2023, he appeared as Joseph Broadbent in Shane Meadows' period drama The Gallows Pole.
References
- ^ "Crossing the Picket Line" (PDF). Marxism Today. Communist Party of Great Britain. June 1985. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- "Fine Time Fontayne comes to Hepworth". Huddersfield Examiner. 26 August 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- "In the name of success!". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- All Memories Great & Small, Oliver Crocker (2016; MIWK)
- "Fine Time Fontayne biography". Townsend Productions. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- "Fontayne CV" (PDF). Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- The Blackburn Files Archived 16 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine at radiolistings.co.uk
- Review of Fontayne's production of The Sleeping Beauty, The Stage
- Writer: Katharine Way; Director: Nimer Rashed; Producer: Gail Evans (18 February 2020). "I Can See Clearly Now". Doctors. BBC. BBC One.
- "The Gallows Pole: Release date, cast and news for Shane Meadows drama". Radio Times. 2 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
External links
Review of Hamlet with Fine Time Fontayne:
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