Tony Gardner

Born

January 10, 1964

From

Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Also:
Writer

Credits on file

Decades active

Upcoming

In short · Acting since 1960, 7 decades active, 77 credits.

Known for

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Biography

Tony Gardner (born 10 January 1964) is an English actor and doctor. He is a member of the national governing body of the actors' trade union Equity.

Gardner attended St Augustine's Catholic College in Trowbridge. He qualified as a physician at Guy's Hospital in 1987, and as a general practitioner in 1993. During the 1990s, he combined medicine with comedy as half of the award-winning comedy duo Struck Off and Die, alongside Phil Hammond.

Gardner eventually left medicine to pursue acting, appearing in a number of TV commercials, including one for the Renault Mégane. He gained prominence for his role as Brian Johnson in CITV's *My Parents Are Aliens*, for which he also wrote several episodes, and as Michael, the café owner in Jack Dee's BBC sitcom *Lead Balloon*. From 2009–10, he starred in three plays directed by Sir Peter Hall. In 2011, he played Professor Tony Shales in the Channel 4 series *Fresh Meat*. Between 2012 and 2020, he portrayed John in five series of the critically acclaimed romantic drama *Last Tango in Halifax*. The programme achieved strong ratings for BBC One, with the third series averaging 7.8 million viewers.

From 2013 to 2015, Gardner appeared as Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Smith in three series of the wartime comedy *Bluestone 42*, which follows a British bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick. He also appeared as Dan Miller MP in the BBC political comedy *The Thick of It*. He featured as a main character in the music video "Giant Peach" by Wolf Alice, and appeared in a variety of roles in *Tracey Ullman's Show* from 2016. He also appeared in an episode of the Netflix show *Lovesick*, playing Dylan’s father at a surprise wedding anniversary party.

In January 2021, Gardner appeared in S11E1 of *Not Going Out* as a neighbour to Lee and Lucy. He returned for another appearance in S12E4 in 2022.

Filmography · 73 of 73

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