Alumni
For many years young people have been joining the The Bancroft Players Youth Theatre (now called 'Big Spirit') with a dream of turning professional.
For a number of members this has happened. (Members are listed alphabetically).
Paul Collis
Paul had an ambition to be a musical theatre star. He achieved this with lead roles in a number of West End productions, notably Miss Saigon. Sadly, Paul died tragically young. He is commemorated at the Queen Mother Theatre
Peter England
Peter was in the Channel 4 series Teachers (2001) and features in the movie My Brother Tom (2001).
He starred in Equus at Oldham Coliseum and won the Manchester Evening News Best Newcomer Award (2001).
Peter is now a regular in the soap Family Affairs (Channel 5).
Ben Hull
Ben Hull
Previously Ben appeared in the soap Hollyoaks (1997-2001) and Brookside (2002-2003). He now appears in Family Affairs.
Read an article on the bbc website about Ben, Rory gets a mention too.
Claire Rushbrook
Claire was seen in the BBC sitcom Linda Green (2001) alongside Lisa Tarbuck. Her previous work includes the film Plunkett and McLean (1999) and Three Sisters on the West End.
Craig Vye
Craig Vye
Craig took a lead role in two series of the popular Children's BBC series, Aquila (1998).
He has played the role of Jamie in the Nottingham Playhouse touring production of Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing (2002).
Craig is now at RADA completing his actor training.
Ben Whishaw
Trained at RADA, Ben was the lead role in the Channel 4 funded movie My Brother Tom (2001), which won a prize at a European film festival. He has received a 'Best Newcomer' nomination from the British Institute Film Awards and won a best new actor award in the British Screen Awards for his role in My Brother Tom.
As the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 young-cast production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, he received highly favourable reviews. The role was shared with Al Weaver in an unusual arrangement that saw Whishaw playing all nights except for Mondays and matinées. Nunn is reported to have made this arrangement due to the youth of the two actors playing the lead, to relieve some of the pressure on each. It was Whishaw, however, who featured most prominently in the marketing materials and in the majority of reviews.
Whishaw's film and TV credits include Layer Cake and Chris Morris's 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley, in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named 'Most Promising Newcomer' at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards (for My Brother Tom) and, in 2005, nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Brian Jones biopic Stoned. In the spring of 2005, Whishaw received lots of press for his turn as a drug dealer, acting alongside Robert Boulter and Fraser Ayres in Philip Ridley's highly controversial stage play Mercury Fur.
In Perfume, Whishaw plays Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly. The film was released in Germany in September 2006 and in the U.S. in December 2006. In the same year Whishaw worked on Pawel Pawlikowski's abandoned The Restraint of Beasts.
Whishaw appeared in I'm Not There in 2007 as one of the Bob Dylan reincarnations; in Criminal Justice, a Tiger Aspect series for the BBC, in 2008; a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited; and ...some trace of her, an adaptation of The Idiot at the National Theatre.
At the end of 2009 he starred in Cock, a new play by Mike Bartlett at the Royal Court Theatre.In 2009 he also starred as the poet John Keats in the film Bright Star, which was written and directed by Jane Campion.
In February, 2010 Whishaw made a very successful off-broadway debut at MCC Theater in the US premiere of the awarding winning play The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell. The performance co-starred Hugh Dancy and Andrea Riseborough and was directed by Joe Mantello.
He played Ariel in Julie Taymor's recent film adaptation of The Tempest and is attached to work on the film Kill Your Darlings (in which he plays Lucien Carr).
Ben Whishaw's most recent project is The Hour a BBC Two drama series, written and created by award-winning screenwriter Abi Morgan.
