Cal MacAninch

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Scottish actor

title: "Cal MacAninch" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1963-births", "living-people", "scottish-male-film-actors", "scottish-male-radio-actors", "scottish-male-stage-actors", "scottish-male-television-actors", "male-actors-from-glasgow", "alumni-of-the-university-of-glasgow"] description: "Scottish actor" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_MacAninch" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Scottish actor ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
imagesize	150px
name	Cal MacAninch
birth_name	Calum Andrew Colquhoun MacAninch
birth_date
birth_place	Govan, Glasgow, Scotland
years_active	1989–present
occupation	Actor
spouse	Shauna Macdonald
::

Cal MacAninch (born 24 November 1963) is a Scottish actor, who is known for portraying the character of DI John Keenan in police drama HolbyBlue on BBC1 from 2007 to 2008. Other notable appearances are his roles as Mr Thackeray in the ITV period drama Mr Selfridge, and Henry Lang in Downton Abbey, but he has played many leading roles in British television and film over the last thirty years.

Biography

MacAninch played Rowan Collins in Series 4 of the ITV drama series Wild at Heart. He returned to the show for its fifth series as a main cast member. He also played Tauren, a sorcerer in the BBC television series Merlin in the episode "To Kill the King". He starred in the 2001 BBC miniseries The Best of Both Worlds with Alice Evans. He appeared as Henry Lang, a valet, in the second series of Downton Abbey.

Family, personal life

MacAninch and his wife, actress Shauna Macdonald, have three daughters and live in the Portobello district of Edinburgh. MacAninch is a keen marathon runner.

Radio

::data[format=table]

Date	Title	Role	Station
	**	Liam	BBC Radio 4 Friday Play
	Soft Fall the Sounds of Eden	Andy	BBC Radio 4 Friday Play
	How Many Miles to Basra?		BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3
	**	King James I	BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3
–	** (series 4)	Yukinari	BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
–	**	DI Fin Macleod	BBC Radio Scotland
	**	Reader	BBC Radio 4
–	Silence	Erling Kagge	BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
::

Television

::data[format=table title="Television"]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
	Taggart	Heckler	Episode: "Hostile Witness"
	**	Angel Eyes	Episode: "Chinese Whispers"
	**	Milligan	3 episodes
	Screen One	Axle	Episode: "Alive and Kicking"
	**	Evan Llyr	TV miniseries
94	**	Declan	TV series: main cast
	**	Philip Tippett	TV film
	The Big One	Jeff	TV film
	Dangerous Lady	Geoff Ryan	TV miniseries
	Screen Two	Tom Kelso	Episode: "Nervous Energy"
	Taggart	Dr David Argylle	Episode: "Devil's Advocate"
	Cooking Pigeons		TV film
	**	Finn	Episode: "The Lake of Darkness"
	Warriors	Sgt Andre Sochanik	TV serial
	Little Bird	Tony O'Neill	TV film
	Best of Both Worlds	Mark Landucci	3 episodes
	Waking The Dead	Alex Bryson/Sam Keel	Episode: "A Simple Sacrifice"
03	Rockface	Ben Craig	TV series: main cast
	Silent Witness	Michael Patterson	Episode: "Fatal Error"
	Murphy's Law	DS Nic Winters	Episode: "Bent Moon on the Rise"
	**	Mike	Episode: "Hardcore"
	Sorted	Radge	TV series: main cast
08	HolbyBlue	DI John Keenan	TV series: main cast
	Merlin	Tauren	Episode: "To Kill the King"
10	Wild at Heart	Rowan Collins
	Strike Back	Major Chris Pemberton	Episode: "Iraq: Part One"
	Downton Abbey	Henry Lang	Episodes: "Matthew's Return" and "General Sir Herbert Strutt"
	Garrow's Law	Richard Lucas	1 episode
	Midsomer Murders	Alan Robson	Episode: "The Sicilian Defence"
	Silent Witness	David Loader	Episode: "Legacy"
15	Mr Selfridge	Mr Thackeray	11 episodes
	Banished	Sergeant Timmins	TV serial
	DCI Banks	Detective Sergeant Martin Heston	Episode: "Ghosts"
	Katie Morag	Mr Cavendish	Episode: "Katie Morag and the Worst Day Ever"
	Scott & Bailey	Craig Widnes	Episodes: "Nobody's Fool" and "Change"
	Frontier	Angus	Season 3
	**	Christian Graham	TV miniseries
	**	Hugo Snow	TV film
	Father Brown	George Oakley	Episode: "The Tower of Lost Souls"
	Vera	Thomas Walden	Episode: "Parent Not Expected"
	Des	Neil Sinclair	TV Mini-Series: 2 episodes
	Time	PO Galbraith	3 episodes
	Vigil	Ben Oakley	TV serial
	Trigger Point	Inspector Lee Robins	6 episodes
	**	Michael Seaborne	Episode: "The Blackwater"
	Mayflies	Tibbs
::

Film

::data[format=table title="Film"]

Year	Title	Role
1993	Splitting Heirs	CID Officer
	**	Dr. Fitzpiers
1998	Speak Like a Child	Billy, Age 30
1998	Sentimental Education	August
1999	**	Martin
2000	Best	Paddy
2000	Breathtaking	Mick Wilmott
2001	**	Horst
2004	Dear Frankie	Davey
2005	Rag Tale	Paul (Mac) MacAvoy, Sports Editor
2007	Jetsam	Jack
2011	Screwed	Eddie
2018	Calibre	Al McClay
2019	Intrigo: Dear Agnes	Erich Neumann-Hansen
2019	Intrigo: Samaria	Erich Neumann-Hansen
2020	**	Ben Tuttle
2021	Nobody Has to Know	Peter
::

Theatre

::data[format=table]

Date	Title	Role	Director	Company / Theatre
–	''''		{{sortname	}}
–	Macbeth	Macbeth		Unnatural Acts Theatre
–	How Like An Angel	Peter		Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
–	Tis Pity She's A Whore	Grimaldi		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Frankenstein	Walton/Clerval		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Not About Heroes	Wilfred Owen		Heroes Theatre Company
–	**	The Passer By		Dundee Repertory Theatre
–	**	John		Dundee Repertory Theatre
–	**	Defence		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Enrico Four	Arialdo		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Oedipus Rex	Oedipus		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Hamlet	Hamlet		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	**	Wood Demon		Playhouse Theatre, London
–	**	Harry Carney		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Under the Black Flag	John Silver		Shakespeare's Globe
–	**	Pentheus		National Theatre of Scotland
Lincoln Center, New York
–	Peter Pan	Captain Hook		National Theatre of Scotland
–	Wee Andy	The Surgeon		Òran Mór, Glasgow
–	Anna Karenina	Vronsky		Shared Experience
–	King Lear	Duke of Cornwall		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	Betrayal	Robert		Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
–	**	Robbie Ross		Hampstead Theatre
–	Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
–	Theatre Royal Bath
–	Richmond Theatre
–	Theatre Royal, Brighton
–	Cambridge Arts Theatre
–	Duke of York's Theatre, London
–	Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto
–	Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York
	My Eyes Went Dark	Nikolai Koslov		Finborough Theatre, London
	Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
	59E59 Theaters, New York
–	**			Tron Theatre, Glasgow
::

References

"A Lap With Cal MacAninch".
(4 February 2010). "A quick chat with Wild at Heart's Cal Macaninch". What's on TV.
[http://www.itv.com/dramapremieres/downtonabbey/secondseries ''Downton Abbey'' webpage] {{Webarchive. link. (3 September 2011 , ITV.com, July 2011; retrieved 12 August 2014.)
[https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/portobello-residents-rally-bid-buy-bellfield-church-617695 Portobello residents rally in bid to buy Bellfield church – Edinburgh Evening News, 1 July 2016]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/dramaon3/pip/a09cw/ BBC – Drama on 3 – ''How Many Miles to Basra?'']
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016kkbn BBC – Woman's Hour Drama – ''The Pillow Book'' (series 4)]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b493vp BBC – The Poet and the Echo – ''Grey Evening'']
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00026wv BBC – Book of the Week – ''Silence'']
(19 December 2022). "Mayflies – Meet the cast and creatives behind the drama that 'discovers the joy and the costs of love'".
[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/film-bring-on-the-goo-and-grab-the-laughs-1143084.html film round-up – The Independent, 6 February 1998]
[ '''' – ]
[https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/cal-macaninch/cv ''Cal MacAninch CV'' – Curtis Brown]
[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-thebes-of-the-north-richard-loupnolan-compares-versions-of-the-oedipus-myth-in-edinburgh-and-glasgow-1429447.html ''THEATRE: Thebes of the North: Richard Loup-Nolan compares versions of the Oedipus myth in Edinburgh and Glasgow'' – Richard Loup-Nolan, The Independent, 16 March 1994]
[https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12028049.good-my-lord-as-hamlet-thinks-afresh ''Good my lord, as Hamlet thinks afresh'' – Mark Fisher, The Herald, 17 September 1996]
[https://www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/arts_ents/13047945.stepping-back-time ''Stepping back in time'' – The Herald, 21 February 2012]
[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/mar/12/betrayal-review ''Betrayal – review'', Four stars, Citizens, Glasgow – Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 12 Mar 2012]
[http://toronto.eventful.com/events/judas-kiss-/E0-001-087271385-0 ''The Judas Kiss'' in Toronto]. ''Toronto.Eventful.com''. March 22, 2016 – May 1, 2016.
[https://www.bam.org/media/6231921/Judas_Kiss.pdf ''The Judas Kiss''] {{Webarchive. link. (15 April 2023 (theatre program). [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]]. 11 May – 12 June 2016.)
[http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/my-eyes-went-dark ''My Eyes Went Dark'' – Daisy Bowie-Sell, Timeout, 28 August 2015]
[https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/my-eyes-went-dark-theatre-review-high-octane-acting-transcends-its-stage-a2944371.html ''My Eyes Went Dark, theatre review: High-octane acting transcends its stage'' – Fiona Mountford, London Evening Standard, 10 September 2015]
[https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17617319.review-mistress-contract-tron-glasgow-four-stars ''Review: The Mistress Contract, Tron, Glasgow, Four Stars'' – Neil Cooper, The Herald, 3 May 2019]

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