Fine Time Fontayne

Fontayne was born in Wombwell, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire) into a mining family.[1] In the 1960s, he moved with his parents and brothers to Sheffield, where they ran a pub.[2] He took his stage name when he began singing and playing at a local folk club in Yorkshire.[3] He had previously called himself Ordinary Seaman Whittle.[4] He started acting in the 1970s with the Crucible Vanguard Company.[5]

In the early years of his career Fontayne worked in cabaret, community and repertory theatre, as well as the Red Ladder Theatre Company.[1] He has played a variety of roles in many long-running British TV series such as All Creatures Great and Small, Coronation Street, Emmerdale as well as both Heartbeat playing the role of a journalist on the Ashfordly Gazette and The Royal in which he appeared as Nobby Jepson, an ex-coal miner turned "back setter," in the episode Consequences.

He is a frequent voice in BBC Radio drama (including The Blackburn Files and Street and Lane) and has appeared in films including 24 Hour Party People and Butterfly Kiss.[6][7]

Fontayne appeared in the 2002 radio series The Little World of Don Camillo. He directed a successful production of Sleeping Beauty at the Mercury Theatre, Essex in December 2007 and January 2008.[8] In February 2020, Fontayne portrayed the role of Ned Wainwright in the BBC soap opera Doctors.[9]

Fontaine was also a regular feature in Oldham Colliseum’s annual pantomime, co-writing and performing as the pantomime dame in things such as Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty and Mother Goose

• Fine Time Fontayne at IMDb

Review of Hamlet with Fine Time Fontayne:

https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/15-3/revham.htm