Five actors you might not know are from County Durham

From prestige period drama stalwarts to BAFTA-winning leads and family-film favourites, these five have all swapped the banks of the Tees and the terraces of the old coalfield for some of the biggest film and TV roles around.

Jeremy Swift

Jeremy Swift was born in Stockton-on-Tees on 27 June 1960, the son of two music teachers, and grew up far from the usual London drama schools and casting circuits.

He eventually trained at the Guildford School of Acting and spent much of the 1980s in experimental and fringe theatre before breaking into screen work.

Swift’s film roles include Robert Altman’s Gosford Park and Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, but television made him a familiar face.

Viewers know him best as punctilious butler Septimus Spratt in Downton Abbey and for his scene-stealing turn as PR man Higgins in Ted Lasso, plus a role in Mary Poppins Returns.

Jeremy Swift (Image: NQ)

Alun Armstrong

Alun Armstrong was born Alan Armstrong in Annfield Plain, County Durham, in July 1946, the son of a coal miner, and grew up in a Methodist household where both parents were lay preachers.

A teacher at Consett Grammar School encouraged his early love of Shakespeare, and he later studied fine art at Newcastle University before pursuing acting.

Armstrong became one of Britain’s most respected character actors, moving between stage and screen with ease and building a reputation at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End, where he originated the role of Thernadier in Les Miserables.

On screen, he has appeared in Ken Loach’s Days of Hope, coalfield drama The Stars Look Down, Hollywood hit The Mummy Returns and BBC favourite New Tricks.

Alun Armstrong.

Jamie Bell

Jamie Bell was born Andrew James Matfin Bell in 1986 in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, into a family of dancers that included his mother, grandmother, aunt and sister.

He famously skipped football training to attend dance classes, an experience that fed directly into his breakthrough role as a working-class ballet-mad schoolboy in Billy Elliot.

That performance earned him the BAFTA for Best Actor, making him one of the award’s youngest winners and instantly propelling him from Teesside to international attention.

Bell has since built a varied film career, with roles in King Kong, The Adventures of Tintin, Snowpiercer, Fantastic Four and Elton John biopic Rocketman.

JAMIE BELL: Arriving for the UK Charity Premiere of Nicholas Nickleby at the Odeon West End,

Simon Farnaby

Simon Farnaby was born on 2 April 1973 in Darlington, County Durham, and grew up in the North East before attending Richmond School in nearby North Yorkshire.

An actor, comedian and writer, he first made his name as part of the Them There collective on CBBC’s Horrible Histories, later co-creating fantasy sitcom Yonderland.

He is now best known to BBC viewers as shameless, trouserless Tory MP Julian Fawcett in hit ghost comedy Ghosts, which he also co-writes.

Simon Farnaby as Julian Fawcett in Ghosts (Image: NQ)

Behind the camera, Farnaby has become a sought-after screenwriter, co-writing beloved family sequel Paddington 2 and penning the screenplay for musical origin story Wonka.

Daniel Casey

Daniel Casey was born on 1 June 1972 in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, and is the son of Yorkshire television journalist and presenter Luke Casey.

Daniel Casey. (Image: Supplied)

Raised in the North East, he joined a youth theatre as a teenager and later studied English literature at Grey College, Durham University, before turning to acting.

After early work on stage and in TV, he became a primetime fixture as DS Gavin Troy, the original sidekick to DCI Tom Barnaby, in ITV’s long-running crime drama Midsomer Murders.

Casey has since popped up in a string of familiar series, including Our Friends in the North, Steel River Blues, Casualty, Coronation Street and EastEnders