Richard Ridings (born 19 September 1958) is an English actor. He portrayed Alan Ashburn in the ITV television drama ''

Fat Friends ''Fat Friends'' (also known as ''Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends'') is a British drama that aired on ITV from 12 October 2000 to 24 March 2005, consisting of 25 episodes over four series. Set in Leeds, the series explores the lives of several slimm ...

'', Bernard Green in the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

comedy-drama '' Common as Muck'', and is the voice of Daddy Pig in ''

Peppa Pig ''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series by Astley Baker Davies. The show follows Peppa, an anthropomorphic female piglet, and her family, as well as her peers portrayed as other animals. The show first aired on 31 Ma ...

''. He trained as an actor at Bretton Hall College, then the

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is a drama school in Bristol, England. The institution provides training in acting and production for careers in film, television and theatre. BOVTS is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. ...

. He is the father of singer-songwriter

Freya Ridings Freya Ridings (born 19 April 1994) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Ridings rose to prominence in 2017 with her ballad, " Lost Without You", which became a top ten hit on the UK Singles Chart. She followed this with ...

Career

He has had roles in a series of other television series and feature films, among them ''

Clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...

'', '' The Ink Thief'', '' Red Dwarf'', ''

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and p ...

'', ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 19 ...

'', '' Fierce Creatures'' and as

Silas Silas or Silvanus (; Greek: Σίλας/Σιλουανός; fl. 1st century AD) was a leading member of the Early Christian community, who according to the New Testament accompanied Paul the Apostle on his second missionary journey. Name and ...

in '' Highlander: The Series''. Ridings voices Daddy Pig in the animated children's series ''

'', Father Christmas and Boss Dwarf in ''

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom ''Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom'' is a British preschool animated television series. The show was created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker, and produced by Astley Baker Davies and Entertainment One (the companies responsible for ''Peppa Pig' ...

'', and Grooby in Q Pootle 5. In 2005, he took the lead role in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

sitcom '' Clement Doesn't Live Here Anymore'', playing a sexually obsessed overweight ghost alongside

Steve Furst Steven Jonathan Furst (born 3 September 1967) is a British comedian, actor and writer. He appeared in the Orange mobile phone cinema adverts in the UK (with Brennan Brown), playing the role of Eliot, a spoof studio executive, and has appeare ...

and

Amanda Abbington Amanda Abbington (born Amanda Jane Smith; 28 February 1974) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Miss Mardle in ''Mr Selfridge'' and Mary Watson in '' Sherlock'', the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes sto ...

. The second series was transmitted in May, 2007. Ridings has also provided voiceovers in video games, including the voice of Sarge in ''

Quake III ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

'', the Mentor in ''

Dungeon Keeper ''Dungeon Keeper'' is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading ' ...

'' and ''

Dungeon Keeper 2 ''Dungeon Keeper 2'' is a strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1999 for Microsoft Windows. The sequel to ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player takes the role of a 'dungeon keeper', building and defending ...

'', Mendechaus in '' War for the Overworld'', Roach in ''

Heavenly Sword ''Heavenly Sword'' is a 2007 action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. Gameplay The game is an action-adventure title with heavy hack and slash ...

'', General Pig in '' Puppeteer'', and ex-lawman Giles the Farmer in '' Fable II'', on the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

video game console. In 2010 he also provided the voice of Pigsy, in the video game '' Enslaved: Odyssey to the West'' and of Cornell (the Dark Lord of the Lycanthropes) in '' Castlevania: Lords of Shadow''. In 2011 he provided the voice of the leader of the Machina refugees, Miqol, in '' Xenoblade Chronicles'' and in 2013 he provided the voice of the Hunter in '' DmC: Devil May Cry'', the Daemon Lord in '' Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate'', and the Green Man in '' Tearaway''. In 2016 he voiced Thorgrim Grudgebearer in '' Total War: Warhammer''. Most recently, Ridings played a courageous ape named "Buck" in the "

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...

" prequel, ''

Rise of the Planet of the Apes ''Rise of the Planet of the Apes'' is a 2011 American science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is a reboot of the ''Planet of the Apes'' film franchise, which is based on the 1963 nov ...

'', which was released in August 2011. In 2015, he played Mr Bumble in the BBC miniseries '' Dickensian''.

Filmography

Film

TV series

Video games

Theatre

References

General * * Specific

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridings, Richard 1958 births Living people 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors English male film actors English male television actors English male voice actors Male actors from Oxfordshire Male motion capture actors People from Henley-on-Thames