Life and career

Allam was born in Bow, London, England. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Manchester University. His father was vicar of St Mary Woolnoth.

He has been nominated four times for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, winning twice. He has been nominated for, and won, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He played Mercutio, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 1983. He has also appeared in many radio dramas for the BBC. In 2001, he starred in BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Les Misérables, as Valjean. In 2000 he played Hitler at the Royal National Theatre in David Edgar's Speer. He won an Olivier Award as Best Actor 2001, for his role as Captain Terri Denis in a revival of Privates on Parade, opening in December 2001 at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden. In November 2002 at the Comedy Theatre he co-starred with Gillian Anderson in Michael Weller's romantic comedy What the Night Is For.

In 2003, he starred as former West German federal chancellor Willy Brandt in Michael Frayn's play Democracy which opened at the Cottesloe Theatre, in the Royal National Theatre. He stayed with the show for its transfer to the West End. In December 2004 and January 2005, Allam appeared as the villainous Abanazar in a pantomime of Aladdin at the Old Vic theatre, co-starring Ian McKellen, Maureen Lipman and Sam Kelly. He reprised this role at the Old Vic, once again with Ian McKellen and Frances Barber in 2006-07. In August 2005, Allam appeared in Blackbird by David Harrower alongside Jodhi May at the Edinburgh Festival in a production by German star director Peter Stein. The play transferred to the Albery Theatre in London in February 2006. Blackbird subsequently won a best new play award.

He also found time in 2006 to appear in Stephen Frears's movie The Queen, starring Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren, as the Queen's private secretary. In February 2007, he performed in the 1960s farce Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre in the West End, co-starring Mark Rylance, Frances de la Tour and Tamzin Outhwaite. In January 2007, he appeared for the first time as Peter Mannion MP in the special episode of the BBC comedy The Thick of It. He went on to reprise his role in the second special aired in July 2007 and in the extra 15-minute episode shown via the BBC red button. He has carried on with this role as a regular character in the subsequent series.

In 2008, Allam played the role of Max Reinhardt, the Salzburg Festival impresario in Michael Frayn's play Afterlife, the production staged by Michael Blakemore on the National Theatre's Lyttelton stage. In 2009, Allam played Albin/Zaza in La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse in London. Allam played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 at Shakespeare's Globe, in the 2010 season. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. In October 2010, Allam was reunitied with his former cast mates from Les Misérables in the 25th anniversary concert for a performance of "One Day More".

In January 2012, British TV audiences found him in the first series of Endeavour, the prequel to the long-running Inspector Morse, playing the gruff but kind-hearted Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, young Endeavour Morse's mentor in a 1960s Oxford - by 2016 he had portrayed this central character in two additional series. In April 2012 he also starred as Uncle Vanya in the play by Anton Chekhov at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

In 2013 he starred as Prospero in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London alongside Colin Morgan as Ariel. Allam presented Michael Frayn at the 2013 Olivier Awards with a Special Lifetime Award which was aired by ITV1. Allam has also reteamed with Stephen Frears in Tamara Drewe, the film version of Posy Simmond's popular comic strip. He plays the crime novelist Nicholas Hardiment, who is bewitched by London journalist Tamara Drewe, played by Gemma Arterton. In the closing chapter of his Timebends autobiography (1987) Arthur Miller writes of Allam: "To play Adrian....in the 1986 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Archbishop's Ceiling, Roger Allam gave up the leading role as Javert in the monster hit Les Misérables because he had done it over sixty times and thought my play more challenging for him at that moment of his career. Nor did he consider his decision a particularly courageous one. This is part of what a theatre culture means and it is something few New York actors would have the sense of security even to dream of doing."

In August 2014, Allam was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Allam narrates the Channel 4 series The Auction House.

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
1976	Vinegar Tom	Doctor	Humberside Theatre, Hull
1979	Mary Barnes	Lecturer/Angie's brother	Royal Court Theatre
1981	Twin Rivals	Subtleman/Richmore
1981	Two Gentlemen of Verona	Outlaw
1981	Titus Andronicus	Demetrius
1981, 1983	All's Well That Ends Well	Morgan	Royal Shakespeare Theatre (1981) Martin Beck Theatre (1983)
1982	Our Friends in the North	Conrad
1982	Poppy	Lin
1983	The Charge of the Light Brigade (RSC Festival)	Terence Gawain Hackett
1983	Typhoid Mary (RSC Festival)	Dr Soper
1984	Romeo and Juliet	Mercutio
1984	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus/Oberon
1984	Richard III	Clarence
1984	Today	Victor Ellison
1984	The Party	Ford
1985	The Dream Play	The Officer
1985-1986	Les Misérables	Javert	Barbican Theatre (1985) Palace Theatre (1986)
1986	The Archbishop's Ceiling	Adrian
1986	Heresies	Pimm
1987	Measure for Measure	The Duke Vincentio
1987	Twelfth Night	Sir Toby Belch
1987	Julius Caesar	Brutus
1989	The Fairy Queen	Oberon	Aix-en-Provence Festival
1990	The Seagull	Trigorin
1990	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick
1991	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Jekyll
1992	Madras House	Philip Madras	Lyric Hammersmith
1992	Una Pooka	Angelo	Tricycle Theatre
1993	City of Angels	Stone	Prince of Wales Theatre
1994	Arcadia	Bernard Nightingale	Theatre Royal Haymarket
1995	The Importance of Being Earnest	Jack Worthing	Old Vic Theatre
1995	The Way of the World	Mirabell	National Theatre
1997-1998	ART	Serge(1997) Marc(1998)	Wyndham's Theatre
1996	Macbeth	Macbeth
1996	The Learned Ladies	Trissotin
1999	Summerfolk	Bassov	National Theatre
1999	Money	Henry Graves	National Theatre
1999	Troilus and Cressida	Ulysses	National Theatre
2000	The Cherry Orchard	Lopakhin	National Theatre
2000	Albert Speer	Adolf Hitler	National Theatre
2001	Privates on Parade	Terri Dennis	Donmar Warehouse
2002	What The Night Is For	Adam Penzius	Comedy Theatre
2003	The Woman in White	Performer	Sydmonton Festival
2003	Democracy	Willy Brandt	National Theatre
2004, 2005	Aladdin	Abbanazar	The Old Vic
2006	Blackbird	Ray	Albery Theatre
2006	Pravda	Lambert Le Roux	Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
2007	Boeing, Boeing	Bernard	Comedy Theatre
2007	The Giant	Leonardo da Vinci	Hampstead Theatre
2008	Afterlife	Max Reinhardt	National Theatre
2009	La Cage Aux Folles	Albin/Zaza	Playhouse Theatre
2009	God of Carnage (UK Tour)	Michel Vallon
2010	Henry IV Parts 1 & 2	Falstaff	Shakespeare's Globe
2013	The Tempest	Prospero	Shakespeare's Globe
2014	Seminar	Leonard	Hampstead Theatre
2015	The Moderate Soprano	John Christie	Hampstead Theatre

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Wilt	Davz
2003	Strangers	Eric	Short film
2005	A Cock and Bull Story	Adrian
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Sir John Hamilton
2006	The Queen	Robin Janvrin
2006	V for Vendetta	Lewis Prothero
2008	Speed Racer	E.P. Arnold Royalton
2010	Tamara Drewe	Nicholas Hardiment
2011	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of Great Britain
2011	The Iron Lady	Gordon Reece
2012	The Woman in Black	Mr Bentley
2012	The Angels' Share	Thaddeus
2015	Mr. Holmes	Dr. Barrie
2013	The Book Thief	Narrator/Death
2015	A Royal Night Out	Stan
2015	The Hippopotamus	Ted Wallace	Post-Production
2016	The Truth Commissioner	Henry Stanfield

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Ending Up	Dr. Mainwaring	Made-for-television film
1989	The fairy queen	Oberon	Made-for-television film
1990	The Investigation: Inside a Terrorist Bombing	Charles Tremayne	Made-for-television film
1992	Shakespeare: The Animated Tales	Duke Orsino / Narrator (voice)	Television mini series; episodes "The Winter's Tale" and "Twelfth Night"
1994	Screen Two	Stephen Summerchild	Television series; episode "A Landing on the Sun"
1998	Heartbeat	Graham Hayes	Television series; episode "Echoes of the Past"
1997	Inspector Morse	Denis Cornford	Television series; episode "Death Is Now My Neighbour"
1998	The Creatives	Charlie Baxter	Television series
1998	Midsomer Murders	Alan Hollingsworth	Television series; episode "Faithful unto Death"
1999	RKO 281	Walt Disney	Made-for-television film
2002	Foyle's War	Alastair Graeme	Television series; episode "Eagle Day"
2002	Waking the Dead	Benjamin Gold	Television series; episode "Thin Air"
2003	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone	Christopher	Made-for-television film
2005	The Inspector Lynley Mysteries	Simon Featherstonehaugh	Television series; episode "The Seed of Cunning"
2007-2012	The Thick of It	Peter Mannion	Television series
2006	Spooks	Paul Millington	Television series
2008	The Curse of Steptoe	Tom Sloane	Made-for-television film
2009	The Old Guys	Ned	Television series; episode "The Therapist"
2009	Margaret	John Wakeham	Made-for-television film
2009	Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire	General Arcadius	Television series
2009	Ashes to Ashes	Detective Superintendent Mackintosh	Television series
2011	Game of Thrones	Magister Illyrio Mopatis	Television series; Episodes: "Winter is Coming" and "The Wolf and the Lion"
2012-	Endeavour	Detective Inspector Fred Thursday	Television series
2012	Parade's End	General Campion	Television series
2013	Sarah & Duck	Narrator	Children's Television Series
2013	The Politician's Husband	Marcus Brock	BBC Two Three Part Drama
2014	Bad Education	Maurice Hewston	BBC Three Comedy

Radio

• The King's General (1992 BBC Radio 4 adaptation) as Sir Richard Grenvile.
• The Man in the Elephant Mask (1997 BBC Radio 4 series) as Joseph Merrick.
• The Ring and the Book (2008 BBC Radio 4 adaptation) as Guido Franceschini
• Cabin Pressure (five series from 2008 to 2014) as First Officer Douglas Richardson.
• Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management (2008 BBC Radio 4 series) as Will's godfather, Peter
• War and Peace (2014 BBC Radio 4 adaptation, aired on New Years Day 2015) as General Mikhail Kutuzov

Audiobooks

Allam has read several audiobooks, including Solar by Ian McEwan.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]