Larry Lamb

For other uses, see Larry Lamb (disambiguation).

Lawrence Douglas Lamb (born 1 October 1947)^[1] is an English actor and radio presenter. He played Archie Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Mick Shipman in the BBC comedy series Gavin & Stacey and Ted Case in the final series of the BBC drama New Tricks. He also appeared on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2016.

Larry Lamb
Born	Lawrence Douglas Lamb (1947-10-01) 1 October 1947 (age 77) Edmonton, Middlesex, England
Occupations	Actor radio presenter
Years active	1975–present
Spouses	Anita Wisbey ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1970)​ Linda Martin ​ ​ (m. 1979; div. 1996)​
Partners	Clare Burt (1996–2016) Marie Victorine (2016–present)
Children	4, including George

Early life

Lamb was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, to Jessie White and Ronald Douglas Lamb, the eldest of four including his brother, Wesley, and a sister Penelope. Lamb had a turbulent childhood; he was verbally abused by his father and often had to keep his parents from fighting.^[2]

In 2011, Lamb participated in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? and discovered that he is descended from a line of proprietors of a well-known travelling menagerie, Day's Menagerie, and a lion tamer named Martini Bartlett.^[3]

Lamb attended Edmonton County School and on leaving school he worked as a lorry driver's mate (assistant) for at that time the UK's largest Waste Paper Merchant J & J Maybank. Later, he joined the oil industry, which resulted in his working in Libya and Canada, where he attended St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. This developed his amateur interest in acting to a professional level, and he performed at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1975–1976. Lamb is distantly related to Edward Buckton Lamb (1806–1869), a Victorian architect who designed St Martin's Gospel Oak and St Mary Magdalene Church in Addiscombe.

Career

Acting

After returning to Britain from Canada, Lamb became a regular cast member, along with Kate O'Mara, in the BBC's North Sea ferry-based soap Triangle (1981–83), in which he played Matt Taylor, the ship's chief engineer.

Other credits include The New Avengers, The Professionals, Fox, Minder, Lovejoy, Get Back, A Touch of Frost, Our Friends in the North, Taggart, Casualty, Kavanagh QC, Spooks, Midsomer Murders, and The Bill.

Between 2007 and 2010, Lamb appeared in Gavin & Stacey playing Gavin's father, Michael "Mick" Shipman. He returned to the role for a Christmas special in 2019.^[4]

In 2008, Lamb began playing Archie Mitchell, the father of Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders. He based his portrayal of Archie on his own father.^[5] He left the show in April, 2009, but returned in July the same year, around the same time that Danniella Westbrook returned to her role of Archie's niece, Sam Mitchell. Archie was killed off in a murder story line at Christmas, 2009. In 2009, Lamb starred alongside Liam Cunningham in Blood: The Last Vampire, in the role of General McKee. On 19 February 2010, Lamb appeared with his son, George Lamb, in EastEnders Live: The Aftermath, after Stacey Slater was revealed to be Archie's killer in the closing moments of the 25th-anniversary live episode.

In April, 2011, BBC Learning launched "Off By Heart Shakespeare", a school-recital contest for secondary school pupils. For the project, Larry took on the role of Jaques from the play As You Like It, and delivered the speech: "All the world's a stage".^[6]

It was announced that Lamb would join the cast of New Tricks as Ted Case in series 12.

Lamb's films include Buster and Essex Boys. In 1983, he had a small speaking role in Superman III.

In September 2023, Lamb appeared in the Channel 5 drama series The Inheritance, appearing alongside Samantha Bond, Jemima Rooper, Gaynor Faye, Rob James-Collier and Adil Ray.^[7]

Theatre

Theatre work includes:

• Educating Rita as Frank - Dir. Jeremy Sams - Chocolate Factory
• The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder as Maurice - Dir. Sarah Frankcom - National Theatre
• Fool for Love as Old Man - Dir. Lindsay Posner - Apollo West End/NIMAX
• The Price as Victor - Dir. Sean Holmes - Tricycle/Apollo West End/National Tour
• Hamlet as Claudius - Dir. Steven Pimlott - RSC
• The Prisoner's Dilemma as The Professor - Dir. Michael Attenborough - RSC
• Art as Marc - Dir. Rachel Kavanaugh - Wyndhams West End
• Inherit the Wind as Drummond - Dir. Dan Crawford - King's Head
• Nine as Guido - Dir. David Leveaux - Donmar
• The Sisters Rosensweig as Kantlowitz - Dir. Michael Blakemore - Old Vic/Greenwich
• Butterfly Kiss as Teddy - Dir Steven Pimlott - Almeida
• Lulu as Rodrigo - Dir. Jonathan Kent - Almeida
• La Musica as Him - Dir. Joseph Blatchley - Hampstead
• Making It Better as The Husband - Dir. Michael Rudman - Hampstead/Criterion West End
• A Madhouse in Goa as Niko/Oliver - Dir. Robert Alan Ackerman - Hammersmith/Apollo West End
• Greenland as Brian - Dir. Simon Curtis - Royal Court
• Insignificance as The Ball Player - Dir. Max Stafford-Clark - Royal Court
• Seduced as Raul - Dir. Les Waters - Royal Court
• Filomena as The Plumber - Dir. Franco Zefirelli - Lyric West End]
• Comedians as George McBrian - Dir. Mike Nicholls - Music Box/Broadway

Other work

In 2013, Lamb began presenting a regular Sunday morning show on LBC. He is an occasional reporter for the BBC programme The One Show. Lamb took part in Gareth's All Star Choir in 2014, as part of the BBC's Children in Need appeal.

In 2016, he appeared in the sixteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.^[8] He became the 6th celebrity to be voted out of the jungle in the 2016 series.^[9]

Personal life

Lamb has a daughter Vanessa Lamb (born 1969) with his first wife Anita Wisbey. He is also the father of radio DJ and television presenter George Lamb, from his second marriage to Linda Martin. Lamb split up with his partner, Clare Burt, with whom he has two daughters: Eloise Alexandra (born 1998), and Eva-Mathilde Lamb (born 2003). Lamb has one granddaughter from his daughter Vanessa, as revealed on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Lamb's autobiography Mummy's Boy was published in 2011.^[10]

Lamb resides in Cornwall.

Awards and nominations

Lamb won the award for Best Villain at the 2010 British Soap Awards.^[11]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Superman	Reporter 1
1983	Superman III	Miner 2
1984	Flight to Berlin	Specialist Dale Sizemore
	My Friend Washington	Ben Carlson
1985	Shadey	Dick Darnley
	Underworld	Roy Bain
1987	Ubac	Larry
	Hearts of Fire	Jack Rosner
1988	Buster	Bruce Reynolds
1998	Place Vendôme	Christopher Makos
2000	Essex Boys	Peter Chase
	One of the Hollywood Ten	Will Geer
2004	Deadlines	Paul Baker
	Fakers	Harvey Steed
2009	Blood: The Last Vampire	General McKee
2011	Two Minutes	William	Short Film
2013	Verona	Capulet	Short Film
2014	Rose, Mary and Time	Barney's Dad	Short Film
	Beachcomber	Stephen	Short Film
2015	Meet Pursuit Delange: The Movie	Sam Walters
2017	The Hatton Garden Job	Brian Reader
	Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story	Mr. Harris
2019	Brighton	Derek
2021	Me, Myself and Di	Clifford
2022	Old Windows	Harry	Short Film
	Hounded	Gregory

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	The New Avengers	Williams	Episode: "Trap"
1979	Hazell	Ned Barrow
	The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game	Steve
1980	Armchair Thriller	CPO Chalky White	4 episodes
	Fox	Joey Fox
	The Professionals	Jack Craine
1981–1983	Triangle	Matt Taylor	78 episodes
1982	Saturday Night Thriller	Mr. Roy Salinger
1983	Jemima Shore Investigates	Max Highams
1984	Minder	Greg Collins
1985	Christopher Columbus	Don Castillo
1986	Boon	Alan Prendergest
	Slip-Up	Ronald Arthur Biggs
1987	Harry's Kingdom	Terry Stewart
	Theatre Night	The Sergeant
1988	Fratelli	Mauro Barberi
1989	Pursuit	Davi
1990	A Little Piece of Sunshine	Desmond Hannah
1991	Screenplay	UNKNOWN
1992	Fool's Gold: The Story of the Brink's-Mat Robbery	Kenneth Noye	TV film
	Lovejoy	Gerald Somers	2 episodes
	Between the Lines	Dennis Ralston
	Get Back	Albert Sweet
1994	White Goods	Jonnie Dow
	Doggin Around	Ken
	In Suspicious Circumstances	Weldon Atherstone
	The Wimbledon Poisoner	Dr. Donald Templeton
1995	A Touch of Frost	Mike Ross
1996	Strangers	Leonard
	Our Friends in the North	Alan Roe	2 episodes
	Annie's Bar	Terry Dunning
1997	The Missing Postman	Trevor Ramsay	TV film
1998	Supply & Demand	Simon Hughes
1999	The Blonde Bombshell	Will Humphreys
	Taggart	Martin Strange	Episode: "Fearful Lightning"
	Casualty	Father Peter Harker	Episode: "Everybody Hurts"
2001	Home Sweet Home		Voice
	Kavanagh QC	Alan Rainer	Episode: "The End of Law"
	Midsomer Murders	Melvyn Stockard	Episode: "Who Killed Cock Robin?"
2004–2005	The Bill	Jonathan Fox	20 episodes
2005	Cathedral	Thomas Becket	5 episodes
	Murphy's Law	George Garvey	4 episodes
2006	Silent Witness	Max Wheaton	2 episodes
	Spooks	Iain Kaillis	Episode: "The Cell"
2007–2010, 2019, 2024	Gavin & Stacey	Mick Shipman	All 21 episodes
2008–2009	EastEnders	Archie Mitchell	150 episodes
2013	Love and Marriage	Tommy Sutherland	All 6 episodes
2015	New Tricks	Ted Case	9 episodes
2017	The Keith and Paddy Picture Show	Dr. Houseman	Episode: "Dirty Dancing"
	Mount Pleasant	Callum	Episode: "The Finale"
2019	Pitching In	Frank	All 4 episodes
	Thunderbirds Are Go	Gomez	Voice; Episode: "Getaway"
2023	Billericay to Barry (TV series)	Himself	All 3 episodes
	The Inheritance	Dennis	All 4 episodes

References

1. Lamb, Larry [@larrylamb47] (10 October 2016). "It's such a joy to get these birthday greetings but to put everyone in the clear my DOB was 01/10/47 not 10/01 ..but many thanks anyway!!LL" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
2. Colin Daniels and Paul Millar (20 June 2010). "Larry Lamb: 'I ran away from my daughter'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
3. "Who Do You Think You Are?". National Fairground Archive. University of Sheffield. Archived from the original on 15 November 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
4. "James Corden: Gavin and Stacey is returning for final episode". BBC News. 3 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
5. "Larry Lamb inspired by 'evil' dad". Metro. 2 December 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
6. "Schools – Teachers – Off By Heart Shakespeare: As You Like It "All the world's a stage"". BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
7. Robinson, Abby (4 September 2023). "The Inheritance cast: Meet the characters in Channel 5 drama". Radio Times. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
8. Who is Larry Lamb? Everything you need to know about the I'm A Celebrity 2016 contestant Archived 1 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
9. "Larry's long-lost daughter hope". The Bolton News. 5 December 2016. p. Main-8. Retrieved 6 June 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
10. Lamb, Larry (3 March 2011). Mummy's Boy: My Autobiography. Coronet Books. ISBN 978-1444715279.
11. "Villain of the Year – British Soap Awards 2010 – Pictures – Tvradio". Retrieved 8 July 2011.

External links

• Larry Lamb at IMDb
• Larry Lamb at Biogs.com