Bernard Atha

Birth : 1928-08-27, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK

History

Bernard Atha CBE is an actor known for his many appearances in Ken Loach films and various notable Play for Today productions. He also served as a Labour councillor for the Kirkstall ward in Leeds for 57 years (1957-2014) and was once the Lord Mayor of the city. He trained in ballet and law before taking up his career in acting and politics.

Movies

All Day on the Sands
Mr and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister's sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father's now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.
The Spongers
Councillor Conway
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.
It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet
Based on James Herriot's books about life as a 1930s' veterinarian in Yorkshire, John Alderson plays the kindly doctor who ministers to animals in this enjoyable family film. Sequel to the 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small.
Leeds United!
Radio Reporter
The true story of a strike in 1970 by female textile-factory workers in Leeds who wanted to be paid the same as their male colleagues, but whose efforts were undermined by the trade union that they belonged to.
There Is a Happy Land
Park Ranger
Keith Waterhouse's near autobiographical tale about characters from his childhood.
Kisses at Fifty
Social Security Man
A father leaves his grown-up family to move in with his lover in the south, alienating himself from his four children.
Family Life
A young woman, Janice, is living with her restrictive and conservative parents, who lead a dull working-class life and consider their daughter to be “misbehaving” whenever she’s trying to find her own way in life.
The Rank and File
Personnel Officer
Ken Loach production for The Wednesday Play; a fictionalised account of the Pilkingtons Glass strike in St Helens, 1970.
Kes
Youth Employment Officer
A young, English working-class boy finds a kestrel and decides to train it.