Ripon Rowel Players

Graham North

Graham joined in 1977, the Rowels having decided on a recruitment drive at that time. Most of the men who had been involved for years had all moved away then. Graham remembers turning up for an audition, the room was full of women but he stayed and played Henry VIII in a one-act play, one performance of which was on the Market Square, as part of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Celebrations.

Many leading roles followed. He has been described in the press as the "master of the acidic one-liner". Favourite parts include Norman in Table Manners (one of the Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourne); the Jimmy Edwards part in Big Bad Mouse, Hobson in Hobson's Choice; Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls; and Harry in Just the Ticket.

In competitive Festival plays, Graham has really come into his own. Six Best Actor awards in the Nidderdale festival, one in subsequent rounds, and two in the Harrogate Festival. His chilling potrayal of Nicholas in Harold Pinter's One For the Road netted him three Best Actor awards in a single year.

He has also produced six plays for the Rowels, and has been chairman for years with a break of five years when her was President.

He is also involved with Ripon Charity Pantomime Group, having played an impressive number of "baddies" since its inception. He is a member of Equity, and has appeared on TV in Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost, Emmerdale, as well several films.

Together with John Burney and Loretta Williams, he makes up the Magdalen Group, who perform poetry readings in aid of the Magdalen Chapel in Ripon.