Eric “Ricky” Tomlinson is an English actor born on 26 th September 1939 in Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire and has lived in Liverpool nearly all his life. Ricky has had over forty different TV roles in his career but is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in the TV soap opera Brookside ( 1982- 1988),DCI Charlie Wise in Cracker (1993-2006)and also in the iconic comedy TV series as Jim Royle in The Royle Family (1998-2012).

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From 1987 to 2023 Ricky has appeared in over thirty different films and Ricky is probably best known for his role as Mike Basset England Manager,a satirical
mockumentary comedy film which even had a cameo appearance by the football legend Pelé.
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A plasterer by trade Ricky spent his working life on many building sites throughout England. In 1972 Ricky joined the flying pickets in a building workers’ dispute in Shrewsbury. Following allegations of violence during this protest in 1973 Ricky was charged with “conspiracy to intimadate” as one of the Shrewsbury Two was sentenced to two years in prison. In May 2020 it was announced that the CCRC had referred a number of convictions relating to the Shrewsbury dispute,including Tomlinson’s,to the Court of Appeal which subsequently overturned the convictions in March 2021.

Ricky is a music lover,a keen banjo player and loves nothing better than a good old music session.

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