Keith Barron

Keith Barron
Keith Barron
Born	Keith Barron 8 August 1936 (1936-08-08) (age 73) Mexborough, South Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Actor, Television presenter
Years active	1961-present
Spouse(s)	Mary Pickard (?-?)

Keith Barron (born 8 August 1936) is an English actor and television presenter, well-known from numerous roles on British television from the 1960s to the present day.

This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (November 2009)

Career

Born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, Barron became well-known to UK television viewers in the early 1960s as the easy-going Detective Sergeant Swift in the Granada TV series The Odd Man and its spin-off It's Cold Outside. His major breakthrough, however, was as Nigel Barton, an avatar of the writer Dennis Potter in his plays Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology series (he later played a very similar character in Potter's Play For Today offering Only Make Believe (1973)). He made many one-off television appearances, from Redcap and Z Cars in the mid 60s, to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The New Avengers and The Professionals. He made two appearances in Upstairs, Downstairs as Australian Gregory Wilmot. In the 1980s he was a guest in the Doctor Who serial Enlightenment. He also did many voiceovers on British TV adverts. In 1989 he starred on television in a moving story of relationships in a new town in the Midlands entitled Take Me Home with Annette Crosby as his wife and Maggie O'Neill as his girl friend.

On the big screen, he appeared in the David Puttnam film Melody (1971) as Mr Latimer. One of his best-loved and best-remembered roles was in the 1980s sitcom Duty Free. In the 1990s he co-starred in the sitcoms Haggard and All Night Long. In the 2000s he was a regular character on the ITV Sunday night drama Where the Heart Is.

Keith Barron has also appeared as himself as the guest celebrity in dictionary corner on several episodes of the Channel 4 words and numbers game Countdown.

He was the star on Bunn and Co., a radio show that was broadcast from March 2003 to April 2004 on BBC Radio 4

Barron's performance in the BBC's Test the Nation IQ test show on 2 September 2006 gave him an IQ of 146.

In 2007 Barron joined ITV1's Coronation Street as George Trench.

Personal life

His wife, Mary Pickard, is a stage designer, and they have two sons, Jamie and Mark. Mark works as a writer, under the name Mark Dawson.

External links

• Keith Barron at the Internet Movie Database
• Keith Barron at TV.com