Jeffrey Holland
TV and Radio Legend Jeffrey Holland joined our cast, through his and Writer Craig's shared admiration of Laurel & Hardy.
We are thrilled that he agreed to play Ken's Father, Stan. Filming in Canvey Island with Jeffrey was a real pleasure and he did a fabulous job! Let's hope it gets the commissioning it deserves.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Craig Shepherd
Jeffrey Holland
Judy Buxton
Eleanor May Blackburn
Ryaan Prinze Ali
John Alan
Lucy Appleton
David Burgess
Shaun Doane
Extras:
as Ken Jonathon Livingstone Seagull Codd
as Stanley Oliver Codd
as Alice Anthea Hazel Palace
as Gwendolyn Ethel Evelyn Codd
as Thomas Brian Goldstream Bailey
as Francis Jacob Boulthwart
as Judith Abigail Molton
as Wilf the Waiter
as The Narrator
Cally Briggs, Lauren Redfern,
Greg Fitzgerald, Nathan Docherty,
Drew Canning, Amaan Hussain,
Rebecca O'Shaughnessy, Liam Johnson,
Rob Wright
Crew
Craig Shepherd
Rhys Freeman
Rob Sadler
Josh Foster
Kyle Attwood
Jessica Tomlinson
Stephen Boot
Kate Asgari
Kelly Birkin
Fern Lynch
Jessie Roberts
Saara Lindahl
Unit Driver (North)
Unit Driver (South)
Writer
Director
Producer
Director of Photography
Boom Operator
Sound Assistant
Editor
Make-up
Make-up
Make-up
Make-up
Music Composer
Simon Hartley
Craig Kerrigan
Pre-Production
Rob Sadler
Alan Marni
Script Editor, Locations & Casting
Locations
Biography
Jeffrey is probably best known for his portrayal of Spike in BBC TV’s Hi-De-Hi!, also the stuffy footman James Twelvetrees in the hugely successful You Rang M’Lord? And more recently as Mr. Parkin the Stationmaster in Oh, Dr. Beeching!
Born in Walsall, West Midlands, he trained in Birmingham and began his career with four and a half years in repertory at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry where he eventually finished up as leading character man.
His theatre work is extensive and includes seasons at the Chichester Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. He also appeared in the much loved stage production of television’s Dad’s Army in which he took over as the spiv, Private Walker. His many summer seasons include the stage production of Hi-De-Hi!Which also enjoyed a successful run at London’s Victoria Palace theatre in 1984. Other West End work includes Run For Your Wife at the Criterion theatre and Travels With My Aunt at the Whitehall.
He was a regular member of the cast of Radio Two’s Russ Abbot Show and has frequently appeared in radio shows such as Weekending, Crowned Hudds and many more. He recently had the pleasure of re-creating the Peter Sellers characters in “Goon Again”, a 50th. Anniversary tribute to “The Goon Show” for the BBC.
His first TV role was in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green and his television work includes both comedy and drama with such shows as It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum, Are You Being Served?, Dad’s Army, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Russ Abbot’s Madhouse.
He has also appeared in three of BBC 2’s Shakespeare productions Richard ll, As You Like It and Henry V.
He appeared in a highly successful run of “Talent” written and directed by Victoria Wood at The Menier Chocolate Factory in London and more recently he toured the UK in a stage production of the popular TV sitcom “Waiting for God” playing Tom Ballard. This was followed by a production of “Brassed Off” at the Wolverhampton Grand in which he played Danny.
His one-man show, “…and this is my friend Mr Laurel”, a play about legendary film comedian Stan Laurel, enjoyed three sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014, 2015 and 2018 and was followed by a UK tour.
Jeff especially enjoys the Christmas period as he gets to don his frocks as one of Britain’s leading “Dames”. His pantomime work has seen him in well over 40 seasons and he has worked at most major theatres all over the U.K.
Represented by:
Jean Diamond
Diamond Management
31 Percy Street, London. W1T 2DD
Phone: 0206 6310400
Fax: 0207 6310500
Voice over:
First Floor, Thomas Place
1a Devonshire Road, London. W4 2EU
Phone: 0208 7427077
Fax: 0208 7427011
Email: info@voice-shop.co.uk
Judy Buxton
Judy is a Legend of TV, Theatre and Radio. She joined our Cast through her admiration of Laurel & Hardy. shared with Writer Craig Shepherd.
We are thrilled that she has joined us to play Ken's Best Female Friend Alice. The filming in Canvey Island was a real pleasure, Judy did an amazing job, especially at mastering the Yorkshire accent!
Biography
Judy trained at the Rose Bruford College and began her acting career in repertory in Chesterfield. She has since worked extensively in both theatre and television.
Her West End stage credits include Baggage and A Murder is Announced both at the Vaudeville Theatre. She also played in The Ghost Train at the Old Vic, School for Scandal playing Lady Teazle opposite Sir Donald Sinden at the Haymarket, Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the Strand and Mary Smith in Run For Your Wife at the Whitehall.
She made her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company as Iphigenia in John Barton’s acclaimed production of The Greeks at the Aldwych and then went on to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Stratford-upon-Avon. Whilst there she also played Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, the Sweet Girl in La Ronde and principal boy in the RSC’s pantomime The Swansdown Gloves. She has worked at the Vienna English Theatre in Harold Pinter’s The Lover which transferred to the Young Vic. She also toured the Far and Middle East in several different plays for Derek Nimmo’s Dinner Theatre.
Her many televisions include By The Sword Divided, Lovejoy, Bergerac, Blake’s Seven, Diary of a Nobody, Rising Damp, Next of Kin and three series as Dennis Waterman’s wife Ruth in On The Up.
Films include The Big Sleep, The Likely Lads, Aces High and Get Real.
She has appeared at the Mill at Sonning in “Murder by Misadventure”, “Spring and Port Wine” and “Move Over Mrs Markham” and “Run For Your Wife”. Judy was also in the sell out production of “The Art of Concealment” at The Jermyn Street Theatre and the Riverside Studios Hammersmith playing Vera Rattigan and Aunt Edna. She is currently enjoying great success in the play 'Women of a a Pensionable Rage'.
Judy has cast many a magic spell across the UK in such pantomimes as Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Dick Whittington.
Judy is married to actor Jeffrey Holland.
Craig Shepherd
Craig is not only the Writer of the 'Codd Palace' Pilot 'Simply Ken', he's also the Lead Actor. Both are huge responsibilities and we think he has done a fabulous job!
Craig was incredibly nervous for the Preview we held in May, but is still buzzing at the reception his work received. Let's hope we can get it commissioned!
Biography
Craig was born Andrew Craig Shepherd; to Brian and Hazel Shepherd, at the Northern General Hospital in a snowbound Sheffield, in February 1969. His first venture into entertainment was to become a Saturday afternoon World of Sport wrestler, as he was so fascinates by the audiences reaction to them, particularly the villains.
However by the time he was 14, he had been in a number of school plays and had joined the Sheffield Youth Theatre run by Meg Jepson; who specialised in Shakespeare and other classic works such as Chaucer and the York cycle Mystery Plays. One of his main influences were Laurel & Hardy the famous comedy duo, he liked the pathos and the storytelling as well as their broad slapstick humour, which very rarely mixed with subtlety of delivery. After 3 years at East 15 Drama School, he graduated in 1993. He made a number of TV and Film appearances. Most notably as "Ben" in Sean Bean's Sheffield football film 'When Saturday Comes". PC Jordan in 'Emmerdale', later as "smelly Colin" in same soap. An alien possessed Policeman in 'Whizziwig'. As Peter Kay's School mate "Foster-ster" in 'Max & Paddy, as well as "Tait" attacking John Hannah in 'New Street Law'. Recently he appeared with Gabriel Byrne as his arresting officer in 'Lies we tell' and as another Policeman (PC Carter) in 'Waterloo Road'.
As well as touring Austria in 2001 with Vienna's English theatre as "Inspector Fix". Craig toured his one man show of Laurel & Hardy 'The Fiddle and the Bow' around the Fan Clubs between 2009 - 2018. He won the Solo Festival in Camden as BEST MALE ACT in 2011. It was on these tours that he met Jeffrey Holland & Judy Buxton and they decided that it would be a great idea to work together on a project in the near future. Cut to 2021 and Jeff played Craig's Dad in 'Simply Ken' as 'Stan Oliver Codd'. Craig also has a 12 year old son named 'Oliver Stanley Shepherd', can you guess who he is named after?
Graig recently performed 'The Fiddle & Bow at Rotherham Civic Theatre and received a standing ovation, watch out for the play being staged again in local theatres!
Craig is also Co-Programme \ Leader of Levels 1-6 Performing Arts at Rotherham College.
Contact
Nyland Management: casting@nylandmanagement.com
Eleanor May Blackburn
Both Ellie and Craig have worked together previously, Craig admired her work so much that she was invited to join the cast, in a key role, as Ken's Daughter Gwendolyn.
Ellie has made the role her own, she has done a fabulous job! We're of the firm opinion that she will be a future star.
Biography
Eleanor graduated from Falmouth University in 2019 with First Class Honours in Acting. She made her professional debut in Agnes! The story of the first girl guide with Very Serious Theatre in 2019.
Since then she has taken her autobiographical solo show 'Subdural Hematoma' to Greater Manchester Fringe, acted in over 5 short films, recorded a voice over with the University of Sheffield, featured in 2 web series', a podcast on Spotify and taken part in numerous scratch nights and festivals. Eleanor has been on BBC upload 4 times.
More recently Eleanor has been playing Lady Macbeth in Breakout Arts 60 minute, 4 hander adaptation of Macbeth, released her first poetry book 'Ghost and Found' (which you can find in Hardback on Amazon or E-book on Ko-fi) and spends much of her time playing a witch (amongst other characters) in the York Dungeons.
Ellie will be at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023, starring in her new Show 'Does My Fanny Look Big In This?'
Contact
Toni Collard Management: Website
Ryaan Prince Ali
Ryaan joined us via our online Auditions and we made a real find!
He's done a fabulous Job as Gwendolyn's boyfriend Tom, they are both very convincing as the young couple. We're hoping we can re-unite them for future scenes. Ryaan has a got a great future ahead.
Contact
Modelling Agency: Click Here
IMDB CV: Click Here
Lucy Appleton
Lucy joined us via our online Auditions and we made another great find!
She does a great job playing Judith, her character's interactions with Gwendolyn and Francis are excellent. We're hoping we can get her and John to work together on screen again.
Lucy is also a big star on Instagram and TikTok (whatever that is...)
Biography
Lucy Appleton graduated with a first class Honours degree in Event management in 2019. Whilst Lucy’s degree wasn’t in the arts, her love for performing has always been a huge part of her life. Growing up, Lucy starred in many theatre performances; She was Hermia in a 'Midsummer Nights Dream' at West Yorkshire Playhouse in her teenage years, as well as appearing in many other amateur performances in her local area.
Lucy also loves to dance, having trained in contemporary style; which led to performances with Rambert Dance Company.
In the past two years, Lucy has become a full-time 'TikToker'; where she shares her love for acting, through comedy sketches, which she writes herself. As well as this, she has modelled for fashion companies and appeared on Television; in Ian Sterling's 'Celebability'.
Contact
PWR Management E-mail
John Alan
John took part in the online Auditions and was soon found to be the perfect choice to play Francis.
His and Judith's interactions are excellent, very funny! We have great plans for them, when we get commissioned.
Biography
John is an Actor, Dancer, Musician, who has been active most of his life and since playing the Little Boy at the end of a production of 'Christmas Carol', has come a long way.
He gained a BA Honours Degree in performing arts and has had a wide-range of acting roles; including in the musical “A Slice Of Saturday Night”, the Scarecrow in “Wizard Of Oz” and 'Eyam' in the short film “Hidden Agendas”.
He worked for Stagedoor Productions in many of their Pantomimes; including 'Aladdin' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. In 2016 he took part in the WW1 project “We're Here Because We're Here” for Jeremy Deller and Channel 4. He is currently playing 'Pike', in a salute to “Dads Army”, for Groovy Gazza Productions.
David Burgess
David is a colleague of our Writer and Lead Actor Craig, at Rotherham College.
When we needed someone to play the Waiter, who manages to upset Ken, Craig realised that David was the perfect choice and what a brilliant job he made of it!
Biography
David read Music at Leeds University, Bretton Hall Campus before completing his teacher training qualifications at Huddersfield University. He is currently employed by Rotherham College as a Senior Curriculum Team Leader of Visual and Performing Arts. This role has enabled David to work with students ranging from Level 1 to Level 6 studying Music Performance, Music Technology, Musical Theatre, Dance and Drama. He also works closely with Hull University writing and delivering degree provision including BA (Hons) Music Performance and Production.
He continually works as both a performing Musician and Musical Director across the UK and leads the region’s top party band, 'The Magnetics', performing regularly across the UK and Europe. David has been involved with numerous musical theatre productions with various companies.
Rhys Freeman
At a late stage, the original Director was unable to continue their role.
Luckily for us, we were introduced to Rhys, via an interview he did on Rockingham Radio. He attended one of our final read-throughs and loved what he saw, he instantly agreed to take over Directorial duties.
There was lots of expectation on Rhys' shoulders for the Preview and he did a brilliant job. Rhys has recently been made an Accredited Director at Cannes, is currently Directing his first Feature Film and his first book is to be published later in 2023.
Biography
Rhys is a director and producer, as well as a multi-award winning screenwriter, with awards across the world for his writing. Rhys is also the proud owner of independent production company, Toad Abode Productions Ltd.
Aside from Simply Ken, Rhys has been involved in 9 other projects throughout 2021, directing 6 and producing 7. Rhys’ core genre focus is drama and romance as he looks to bring to life a concise and thorough vision that acts as a clear commentary on everyday life, love and relationships.
2023 is set to see the release of his biggest project to date, as well as many other exciting and big prospects.
Shaun Doane
When we were looking for a voice to narrate our Pilot 'Simply Ken', we realised that we needed a properly authentic Sheffield voice and they don't come much more authentic than local legendary, singer, writer and DJ , Beighton-born 'Big-Shaun' Doane.
As well as well using his skills to set the story, Shaun sang the theme song (Bed & Breakfast Man), in his own inimitable style and it sounds brilliant! We have plans to get Shaun's skills on screen, when we get commissioned.