Gillian Bevan (born 13 February 1956 in Stockport) is an English actress, best known for her roles in British television shows and West End theatre.

In 1988 she played Dorothy in the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of their version of The Wizard of Oz, also singing the role on the cast album. She also appeared as parapsychologist Dr Lin Pascoe in the famously controversial BBC hoax show, Ghostwatch, on 31 October 1992.

Most recently, she portrayed Gina Hope in the UK medical drama Holby City. She played the wife of Consultant Elliot Hope in the drama, who was struck with Motor Neurone Disease. Bevan's character made the decision to end her life by euthanasia in Switzerland, and her touching performance won critical acclaim.

She also played Clare Hunter, the Head Teacher in the UK TV Series, "Teachers". Bevan has also appeared in other UK TV series, including: Heartbeat, Doctors, New Tricks and in the 1990s, Peak Practice, The Chief, and the BBC's controversial drama Ghostwatch.

Lloyd McGuire (born in Birmingham, Warwickshire) is an English actor who has appeared in film and TV for over 35 years.

Education

He attended Bournville Tech/Grammar School where he excelled in sporting activities but at that stage displayed no obvious interest in drama. He is a supporter of Aston Villa.

He began work as a Commercial Apprentice at the Austin Motor Company Birmingham in 1964 and toyed with developing a career as a professional footballer. After a year or two he became disillusioned with both football and life at "the Austin" and, after watching a Michael Caine film, declared he was going to be an actor. He was encouraged by his apprentice supervisor who was a member of the Alvechurch Amateur Dramatic Society and began his career in a production in which surprisingly he played the part of a policeman. From there he applied and gained entry to drama school.

Career

His latest, most popular role was that of Bob in the Channel 4 TV series Teachers but he has also appeared in many TV programmes over the last few decades such as Coronation Street, Juliet Bravo, Midsomer Murders and so on. He often plays the role of policemen and made recurring appearances as DS Bernie Duckworth in Juliet Bravo and DCI Rees in The Bill. Other TV show appearances include Bergerac, Boon, Birds of a Feather, Casualty, Doctors, Heartbeat, Holby City, Inspector Morse, Jonathan Creek, Lovejoy, Poriot and Prime Suspect in which he also played a policeman.

Ellen Thomas is an English actress who has had many television and film roles, but is perhaps best known for her recurring role in the Channel 4 Bristol-based comedy, Teachers or as Grace Olubunmi and Claudette Hubbard in EastEnders.

Career

In Teachers, Thomas played Liz Webbe - a school secretary - and was one of the few characters who appeared in all four series, from 2001 to 2004. She is a regular cast member in BBC Radio 4's Clare in the Community and in BBC Three's Coming of Age, in which she plays the Principal. She has also guest-starred in Doctor Who.Casualty,Holby City,William and Mary and The Bill (twice), as well as playing small film roles in Basic Instinct 2,South West 9,Wonderland and The Secret Laughter of Women. For her role in Rev., she was nominated for "Best TV Comedy Performance" at the Black International Film Festival and Music Video & Screen Awards.

Thomas is perhaps best known for the amount of characters she has portrayed in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. She played Pearl Chadwick in 1990, Estella Hulton in 2002, Grace Olubunmi from 2010–11 and is currently playing Claudette Hubbard in 2015. On Thomas' casting of Claudette, current executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins commented, "Ellen Thomas belongs on EastEnders. Albert Square now has a new steely matriarch - with a few twisted secrets hidden behind her beaming smile".

Teachers is a 1984 satirical dark comedy-drama film starring Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams, Ralph Macchio, and Judd Hirsch, written by W. R. McKinney and directed by Arthur Hiller. The movie was shot in Columbus, Ohio, mostly at the former Central High School. The building is now home to the COSI Columbus museum.

Plot

The film opens with a typical Monday morning at John F. Kennedy High School; "typical" events including a fight between teachers, a student with a stab wound and talk of an upcoming lawsuit. We meet haggard Vice Principal Roger Rubell (Judd Hirsch) and clueless Principal Eugene Horn (William Schallert), as well as stuffy lawyer and JFK alumna Lisa Hammond (JoBeth Williams), who is in charge of taking depositions for the Calvin case, in which a recent graduate is suing the school for granting him a diploma despite his illiteracy.

Alex Jurel (Nick Nolte) is a veteran Social Studies teacher who takes his job lightly despite being one of the most popular teachers in school because of his ability to identify and connect with the students. Jurel has been worn down by years of being in-between the rowdy students and the demands of the administration. He is assigned to temporarily take over the duties of the school psychologist (who started a fight in the office) and meets a young man named Eddie Pilikian (Ralph Macchio) to whom he becomes a mentor. During this time, a romance also develops between Jurel and Hammond, his former student.

Ursula Holden-Gill (born 21 March 1974) is an award-winning storyteller, performer and educator known initially for her acting work including her roles as school secretary Carol on Channel 4's comedy drama Teachers (2001-4) and cancer sufferer Alice Dingle on ITV's Emmerdale (2004-6).

Career

Ursula Holden-Gill graduated from St Martin's College, Lancaster in 1996 with a BA Honours in Drama and Music before attaining an MA in Intercultural Storytelling at University of Lancaster and a PG Dip in Acting from the Drama Studio London. Her screen credits include The Bill, Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll, Mrs Merton and Malcolm, Trial and Retribution, Doctor Willoughby, The Wyvern Mystery, People Like Us, Teachers,Emmerdale, The Syndicate, and most recently Wolfblood.

Intermittent with her work as a performer, in recent years Holden-Gill has facilitated workshops on various aspects of performance technique at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Salford University, Edge Hill College, UCLAN, Blackpool and the Fylde College, The Thomas Whitham Sixth Form College and Calderdale College and has also served as a freelance workshop leader and personalLAMDA tutor of singing, speech, storytelling and drama.