Paul Darrow
Encyclopedia
Paul Darrow is an English
actor
best known for his portrayal of Kerr Avon
in the BBC
science fiction
television
series Blake's 7
. He also guest starred twice on Doctor Who
, playing Captain Hawkins in the serial Doctor Who and the Silurians
and Maylin Tekker in the serial Timelash
.
, England
, and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
.
has tended to overshadow his extensive work in theatre
and television
. He also plays the character of Kaston Iago in the Kaldor City
audios. He appeared in all but the first episode of Blake's 7. In the final episode of the series, in which all of the main characters are seen to be shot, Avon shot dead the character Klyn - played by Paul Darrow's wife, Janet Lees Price
.
Darrow's other TV appearances include: Emergency Ward 10
, The Saint
, Z-Cars
, Dixon of Dock Green
, Within These Walls
, as the Sheriff of Nottingham
in the 1975 BBC series The Legend of Robin Hood
, as Mr. Tallboy in the 1973 TV adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers
' Murder Must Advertise
, as Thomas Doughty
in the TV film Drake's Venture
, Dombey and Son
, Maelstrom
, Making News
, Pie in the Sky,
Hollyoaks
and Little Britain
. He spoke the voiceover for Biblical quotations in Richard Dawkins
's The Root of All Evil?
.
Proud of his work on Blake's 7, Darrow has acted as the show's most prolific spokesperson, both in the UK and during the late 80s, in the U.S., when the show was frequently broadcast on US public television. In the mid to late 1990s, he has also purchased the rights to Blake's 7 and attempted to produce a big-budget follow-up miniseries, Blake's 7: A Rebellion Reborn. According to Darrow, it would have begun 25 years after the ending of the original series and might have included an aged Avon passing the torch to a new generation.
Darrow records voiceover
s and straplines for Jack FM
, a radio
station based in Oxford
, Oxfordshire
, United Kingdom
, Jack FM Hertfordshire,106 Jack FM Bristol
and 106 Jack FM Southampton. He also provides the voice of the character Grand Moff Tarkin
in the computer game Star Wars: Empire at War
. He also voiced the character of Zarok in a PlayStation
game titled Medievil
. Darrow appeared in Emmerdale
from 13 July 2009, playing Eddy Fox, a friend of Alan Turner's; he knows Turner as "Tank".
(ISBN 0-80651-112-5), a 1989 novel about Avon's father and Avon's own early life. Darrow's autobiography, You're Him, Aren't You? (ISBN 1-84435-236-6) was published in 2006.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for his portrayal of Kerr Avon
Kerr Avon
Kerr Avon is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Paul Darrow...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
. He also guest starred twice on Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, playing Captain Hawkins in the serial Doctor Who and the Silurians
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Doctor Who and the Silurians is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from January 31 to March 14, 1970. The story is the first appearance of a recurring family of Earth-dwelling reptiles...
and Maylin Tekker in the serial Timelash
Timelash
Timelash is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 9–16 March 1985.-Synopsis:...
.
Early years
Darrow was born in SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School is a British independent school for boys aged 4–19. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Haileybury Group....
before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
.
Career
The popularity of his role as AvonKerr Avon
Kerr Avon is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Paul Darrow...
has tended to overshadow his extensive work in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. He also plays the character of Kaston Iago in the Kaldor City
Kaldor City
Kaldor City is a human city of the future on an unspecified alien world, created by Chris Boucher for the Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death broadcast in 1977, and reused in his Past Doctor Adventure Corpse Marker in 1999...
audios. He appeared in all but the first episode of Blake's 7. In the final episode of the series, in which all of the main characters are seen to be shot, Avon shot dead the character Klyn - played by Paul Darrow's wife, Janet Lees Price
Janet Lees Price
Janet Lees Price is a British actress with many television credits to her name, including: Emergency - Ward 10, Z-Cars, The First Lady, Softly, Softly, Dixon of Dock Green, Upstairs, Downstairs, Within These Walls, Blake's 7, By the Sword Divided, The Bill and Agatha Christie's Poirot.-Personal...
.
Darrow's other TV appearances include: Emergency Ward 10
Emergency Ward 10
Emergency – Ward 10 is a British television series shown on ITV between 1957 and 1967. Like The Grove Family, a series shown by the BBC between 1954 and 1957, Emergency – Ward 10 is considered to be one of British television's first major soap operas.-Overview:The series was made by the ITV...
, The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
, Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
, Within These Walls
Within These Walls
Within These Walls is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison...
, as the Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Nottingham and bringing criminals to justice. For years the post has been directly appointed by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and in modern times, with the existence of the police force, the position is...
in the 1975 BBC series The Legend of Robin Hood
The Legend of Robin Hood
The Legend of Robin Hood was a 1975 BBC television serial that told the story of the life of Robin Hood.-Plot:Robin has been raised as the son of John Hood, a groundskeeper, but learns that he is in fact the long lost son of the Earl of Huntingdon...
, as Mr. Tallboy in the 1973 TV adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
' Murder Must Advertise
Murder Must Advertise
Murder Must Advertise is a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1933.Most of the action takes place in an advertising agency, a setting with which Sayers was very familiar. One of her advertising colleagues, Bobby Bevan, was the inspiration for the character Mr Ingleby...
, as Thomas Doughty
Thomas Doughty (explorer)
Thomas Doughty was an English nobleman, soldier, scholar and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. His association with Francis Drake, on a 1577 voyage to interfere with Spanish treasure fleets, ended in a shipboard trial for treason and witchcraft and Doughty's execution.Although scholars...
in the TV film Drake's Venture
Drake's Venture
Drake's Venture is a 1980 film depiction of Francis Drake's voyage of circumnavigation. Produced by Westward Television to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the event, it nevertheless focuses on the voyage's most controversial aspect, the execution of the gentleman Thomas Doughty for mutiny...
, Dombey and Son
Dombey and Son (TV serial)
Dombey and Son is a television mini-series produced by the BBC in 1983. It was based on the book Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens.It was adapted by James Andrew Hall and directed by Rodney Bennett.- Cast :*Julian Glover - Paul Dombey Sr....
, Maelstrom
Maelstrom (TV series)
Maelstrom is a BBC television drama serial transmitted in 1985.The six-part serial was written by Michael J. Bird, produced by Vere Lorrimer and directed by David Maloney. The major cast members included Tusse Silberg, David Beames, Trevor Baxter, Susan Gilmore, Edita Brychta, John Abineri,...
, Making News
Making News
Making News is a television drama set in the world of journalism produced by Thames Television for the ITV network.A pilot was screened in 1989, followed by one series of six episodes in 1990. The leading cast members included Bill Nighy, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Paul Darrow, Annie Lambert and Tony Osoba....
, Pie in the Sky,
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
and Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
. He spoke the voiceover for Biblical quotations in Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
's The Root of All Evil?
The Root of All Evil?
The Root of All Evil?, later retitled The God Delusion, is a television documentary written and presented by Richard Dawkins in which he argues that humanity would be better off without religion or belief in God....
.
Proud of his work on Blake's 7, Darrow has acted as the show's most prolific spokesperson, both in the UK and during the late 80s, in the U.S., when the show was frequently broadcast on US public television. In the mid to late 1990s, he has also purchased the rights to Blake's 7 and attempted to produce a big-budget follow-up miniseries, Blake's 7: A Rebellion Reborn. According to Darrow, it would have begun 25 years after the ending of the original series and might have included an aged Avon passing the torch to a new generation.
Darrow records voiceover
VoiceOver
VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
s and straplines for Jack FM
106 Jack FM (Oxfordshire)
106 Jack FM is an English language adult hits format radio station that broadcasts on 106.8 MHz FM in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The station is branded as Jack FM...
, a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station based in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Jack FM Hertfordshire,106 Jack FM Bristol
106 Jack FM (Bristol)
106 Jack FM is an English language adult hits format radio station that broadcasts on 106.5MHz FM in Bristol, United Kingdom and is owned by Celador Radio.-History:...
and 106 Jack FM Southampton. He also provides the voice of the character Grand Moff Tarkin
Grand Moff Tarkin
Governor Wilhuff Tarkin or Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, appearing as the main antagonist of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, played by British actor Peter Cushing. A younger version of the character makes a brief cameo in the prequel film Star Wars...
in the computer game Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War is a 2006 real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by LucasArts. Set between Episode III and Episode IV, it focuses on the fledgling struggle between the Empire and the Rebels. It uses Petroglyph's game engine Alamo. The most recent patch was...
. He also voiced the character of Zarok in a PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
game titled Medievil
MediEvil
MediEvil is a platform game released in October 1, 1998 for the PlayStation in Europe and North America, and in June 1999 in Japan. The game was followed by MediEvil 2 in 2000. Then, in 2005, the original game was remade as MediEvil: Resurrection for the PlayStation Portable...
. Darrow appeared in Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
from 13 July 2009, playing Eddy Fox, a friend of Alan Turner's; he knows Turner as "Tank".
Further reading
He is the author of Avon: A Terrible AspectAvon: A Terrible Aspect
Avon: A Terrible Aspect is a science fiction novel by Paul Darrow set in the fictional Blake's 7 universe. It was Darrow's debut novel, first published hardcover in 1989, with copyright shared between Darrow and Terry Nation, the original creator of the Blake's 7 universe...
(ISBN 0-80651-112-5), a 1989 novel about Avon's father and Avon's own early life. Darrow's autobiography, You're Him, Aren't You? (ISBN 1-84435-236-6) was published in 2006.