William Ash (actor)

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title: "William Ash (actor)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-male-film-actors", "english-male-television-actors", "living-people", "1977-births", "people-from-chadderton", "english-male-child-actors", "20th-century-english-male-actors", "21st-century-english-male-actors", "male-actors-from-greater-manchester", "english-male-stage-actors", "actors-from-the-metropolitan-borough-of-oldham"] description: "British actor" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ash_(actor)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British actor ::

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

Field	Value
name	William Ash
birth_date
birth_place	Chadderton, Oldham, England
occupation	Actor
years_active	1987–present
::

| name = William Ash | image = | caption = | birth_date =
| birth_place = Chadderton, Oldham, England | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1987–present | children = | imagesize = | birthname = | relatives = William Ash (born 13 January 1977) is an English actor. He is known for roles in the television dramas Soldier Soldier (1993–1994), Where the Heart Is (1997–1998), Clocking Off (2001–2002), Waterloo Road (2009–2011), The Tunnel (2016–2017) and Emmerdale (2022–present). His film appearances include Mad About Mambo (2000) and Hush (2008).

Career

Born in Chadderton, Oldham, Ash's first TV appearance was as Spike in Coronation Street aged 10. He then had a regular role as Nicky in Making Out (1989–1991), followed by a regular role in the ITV series Where the Heart Is. He has since appeared in Mad About Mambo, Clocking Off, Children's Ward, Lilies, Born to Run, Burn It, All the King's Men, ShakespeaRe-Told (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Doctor Who, the miniseries Conviction, Hush, Waterloo Road and Shameless. In 2006, he portrayed the Manchester United footballer Albert Scanlon in an edition of the BBC series Surviving Disasters about the Munich air disaster of 1958, of which Scanlon was a survivor.

Ash's stage credits include the premiere productions of Presence at the Royal Court Theatre in 2001 and of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found at Sheffield Theatres as well as Of Mice and Men at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

In December 2011, Ash had a starring role in a BBC comedy drama, Lapland, as Ray, a role he is reprising for a new series, Being Eileen. In 2013 he starred in the ITV comedy drama series Great Night Out as Beggsy. In 2015, Ash appeared as Frank Mellor in the BBC TV series Death in Paradise episode 4.4. In February 2016, he appeared in BBC drama series Moving On. In 2016, he appeared in the ITV/Netflix series Paranoid. He also appeared as the character BB in the second and third series of Sky Atlantic's The Tunnel. In 2017, Ash played Leighton Thomas in ITV's serial killer drama, The Loch. In 2018, he played the role of Marvin in a British TV drama series, Wanderlust.

Ash played a central character in the 2020 film Perfect 10.

Filmography

Film

::data[format=table]

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1987	The Sign of Four	Jack Smith	Television film
1993	Raining Stones	Joe
1996	The Bare Necessities	Tony	Television film
1998	Anorak of Fire	Tim Bixton
1999	Fanny and Elvis	Rick
All the King's Men	Sergeant Ted Grimes	Television film
2000	Mad About Mambo	Danny Mitchell
2002	Daddy's Girl	DC Neil Hallam	Television film
Nicholas Nickleby	Frank Cheeryble
2003	Standing Room Only	Simon	Short
2006	Magnolia	Ed	Television film
2007	Until Death	Serge
2008	Hush	Zakes Abbot
2011	Lapland	Ray Cooper	Television film
2013	The Last Witch	Howard Greenwood
The Flea	Brooke/Essex
Man in the Moon	Joe
2017	Habit	Ian
Sophie's Lights	Alan	Short
2018	Playing Dead	Liam
2019	Perfect 10	Rob
The Invisible	Cal
::

Television

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	How We Used to Live	Peter Hodgkins	Episode: "1957: Commercial Breaks"
Coronation Street	Spike	1 episode
1988	Screen Two	Marlene's Kid	Episode: "Love Birds"
1989–1991	Children's Ward	Darren Walsh	Series regular
1989–1991	Making Out	Nicky
1992	Heartbeat	Paul Allenby	Episode: "Nowt But a Prank"
1993–1994	Soldier Soldier	Jack Stubbs	7 episodes
1995	Heartbeat	Joe Norton	2 episodes
1996	Beck	Ralph	Series regular
1997	Born to Run	Sammy Fitch	1 episode
1997–1998	Where the Heart Is	Stephen Snow	Recurring role
2001	Dark Realm	Eric Phillips	Episode: "Organizer 2000"
2001–2002	Clocking Off	Nick Anderson	Series regular
2002	Coronation Street	Johnny James	1 episode
Having It Off	David	Series regular
2003	Burn It	Jon Moore
2004	Conviction	Chrissie Fairburn
2005	Jericho	Johnny Swan	Episode: "The Killing of Johnny Swan"
ShakespeaRe-Told	James	Episode: "A Midsummer's Night Dream"
2006	Surviving Disaster	Albert Scanlon	Episode: "Munich Air crash"
2007	Lilies	Nazzer	Episode: "The Sea"
Doctor Who	Riley Vashtee	Episode: "42"
Sold	Gavin	1 episode
2009–2011	Waterloo Road	Christopher Mead	Series regular (2009–2011)
2011	Shameless	Jesus O'Toole	Episode: "Comebacks"
Legacy: High Green Walls	Dan
Casualty	Harry Reynolds	Episode: "System Error"
2012	Life Stories	Davey	Episode: "Toby's Dad"
2013	Great Night Out	Matthew "Beggsy" Begg	Series regular
Being Eileen	Ray Cooper
Scott & Bailey	Craig	1 episode
2014	Inspector George Gently	Mark Tanner	Episode: "Gently with Honour"
Vera	Linus Campion	Episode: "The Deer Hunters"
2015	Father Brown	RSM Reginald Davis	Episode: "The Sign of the Broken Sword"
Death in Paradise	Frank Mellor	Episode: "Until Death Do You Part"
The Embrace	Charlie
2016	Moving On	John	Episode: "Scratch"
Paranoid	Henry Appley	Series regular
2016–2018	The Tunnel	Boleslaw 'BB' Borowski
2017	The Loch	Leighton Thomas
2018	Wanderlust	Marvin Walters	Recurring role
2020	Silent Witness	Major Mark Sealy	2 episodes
The Accidental Medium	Frank	Series regular
2021	Casualty	Kevin Eccles	1 episode
War of the Worlds	Mark
Wolfe	Jeff	2 episodes
2022	The Rising	Michael Wyatt	Series regular; 8 episodes
The Window	John Maslin	Recurring role; 4 episodes
2022–present	Emmerdale	Caleb Miligan	Series regular
2023	Significant Other	Paul	Episode: "Episode 6"
::

Stage

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Notes
1999	Juno and the Paycock	Johnny Boyle	Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden, London
2001	Presence	Paul	Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London
2002	Port	Danny Miller	Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
2003	The Sugar Syndrome	Lewis	Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London
2005	Electra	Restes	Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
2007	Mary Barton	Jem Wilson
How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found	Charlie/Adam	Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
2008–2009	You Can See the Hills	Adam	Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London & Young Vic, The Cut, London
2011	The Globe Mysteries	Jesus	Shakespeare's Globe, Southwark, London
2012	Of Mice and Men	George Milton	Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
::

References

References

1. "'Munich Air Crash' (episode, 2006) ''Surviving Disaster''".
2. ''Presence'' by [[David Harrower]], London, [[Faber & Faber]], 2001, {{ISBN. 9780571210596
3. (4 October 2012). "BBC One commissions new six-part comedy series, ''Lapland''". [[BBC Online]].
4. "Being Eileen". [[BBC]].
5. (25 September 2018). "Meet the cast of Wanderlust". Radio Times.
6. "Perfect 10".

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