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Peter Kerrigan

Peter Kerrigan

Birth : 1916-01-01, Bootle, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK

History

Peter Kerrigan was a Liverpudlian actor famous for his work on a series of TV plays, many of which were directed by Ken Loach, and for his role as George Malone in Alan Bleasdale's Boys From the Blackstuff. Born in Bootle in 1916, Kerrigan was a docker originally and, as a Communist Party member, founded the Birkenhead Port Workers Defence Committee. At some point in the '50s, he joined the National Association of Stevedores and Dockers and he wrote the 1958 pamphlet, 'What Next For Britain's Port Workers?' on behalf of the Socialist Labour League - the party he had joined following his departure from the CP. In official retirement Kerrigan became an actor appearing in the militant dockworkers drama The Big Flame, written by Jim Allen and directed by Ken Loach. The play stimulated the formation of a political group of the same name, largely based in Liverpool. He was soon in demand, appearing in Loach's The Rank and File and Days of Hope, as well as the Play For Today's The Spongers and United Kingdom, and the drama The Gathering Seed - all of which were again written by Allen. He also appeared in Z Cars, The Sweeney, Family at War, Strumpet City, Crown Court, Brookside and Scully. But he'll perhaps be best remembered as George Malone in The Blackstuff and its subsequent spin off series, Boys from The Blackstuff, in which he played a blacklisted former docker and trade unionist.

Profile

Peter Kerrigan

Peter Kerrigan

Movies

British Rail Inspector

Two guys meet, one American, a deserter from the US army, one Brit, and they are drawn together by their mutual love of Soul music. Neither being gainfully employed they decide to start a mobile disco service for fellow soul lovers, which leads them to buy an ice cream van, and the adventure begins. Before long they find themselves on the run from the bad guys and the police.

Peter Connor

Incendiary 1981 Play for Today, written by Jim Allen and directed by Roland Joffé that tells the story of a group of housing estate residents who attempt to organise against persistent rent rises.

The Black Stuff

The Black Stuff

George Malone

A Liverpool tarmac gang set off for a contract in Middlesborough. After a day of work, the group are approached by two gypsies who offer them a lucrative side job.

Peter

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

James Scannell

When teacher Tony Scannell decides he wants to be ordained as a Catholic Priest his decision has wide ranging effects on his family and loved ones.

Det. Sgt. Williams

“Set in Liverpool in the early 70s, the film tells the story of Samuel 'lucky' Ubooto, a half African, half Irish man in his 20s whose decidedly unlucky career as a criminal has resulted in a series of stretches in prison for theft. The story follows Lucky on the day of his release from his latest sentence. As he wanders around Liverpool, not really belonging anywhere, it becomes clear that he is still waiting for his father, a man who has long since abandoned Lucky and his family, to return and take him back 'home' to Africa.” - Richard Parkin

Talk About Work

Talk About Work

Self (uncredited)

Ken Loach's censored production for the Central Office of Information.

After a Lifetime

After a Lifetime

Uncle John

Ken Loach's first production for ITV, shown under the 'Sunday Night Theatre' strand (originally broadcast 18th July 1971). After a Lifetime is something of a neglected, social realist masterpiece that focuses on two brothers, brought together by the death of their father, reflecting on his life of militancy and political activism. At the time critic Nancy Banks Smith called it ‘brilliantly funny, and moving with a sort of subterranean rage’. Smith himself plays the older brother with a brilliant, raw emotion.

The Rank and File

The Rank and File

Eddie

Ken Loach production for The Wednesday Play; a fictionalised account of the Pilkingtons Glass strike in St Helens, 1970.

Self

A psychedelic documentary of the body electric, with music by Pink Floyd. The film was directed and produced by Roy Battersby. The film's narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide commentary that combines the knowledge of human biologists and anatomical experts. The film's soundtrack, Music from the Body, was composed by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters.

Peter Conner

After a prolonged industrial dispute in the Liverpool Docks, the striking workers reject management demands of a return to work and decide instead to occupy the docks and run the operation themselves.