1.
Roman conquest of Britain
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The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Roman Britain. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. Between 55 BC and the 40s AD, the status quo of tribute, hostages, augustus prepared invasions in 34 BC,27 BC and 25 BC. The first and third were called off due to revolts elsewhere in the empire, by the 40s AD, the political situation within Britain was apparently in ferment. Modern historians are unsure if that was meant to be a punishment for the soldiers mutiny or due to Caligulas derangement. Certainly this invasion attempt readied the troops and facilities that would make Claudius invasion possible three years later, for example, Caligula built a lighthouse at Bononia that provided a model for the one built soon after at Dubris. Three years later, in 43, possibly by re-collecting Caligulas troops, Claudius mounted a force to re-instate Verica. Aulus Plautius, a senator, was given overall charge of four legions, totalling about 20,000 men. The legions were, Legio II Augusta Legio IX Hispana Legio XIV Gemina Legio XX Valeria Victrix The II Augusta is known to have been commanded by the future emperor Vespasian. Three other men of rank to command legions are known from the sources to have been involved in the invasion. Cassius Dio mentions Gnaeus Hosidius Geta, who led the IX Hispana. He wrote that Sabinus was Vespasians lieutenant, but as Sabinus was the brother and preceded Vespasian into public life. Eutropius mentions Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus, although as a former consul he may have been too senior, the main invasion force under Aulus Plautius crossed in three divisions. The port of departure is usually taken to have been Boulogne, neither of these locations is certain. Richborough has a natural harbour which would have been suitable. However, Dio says the Romans sailed east to west, some historians suggest a sailing from Boulogne to the Solent, landing in the vicinity of Noviomagus or Southampton, in territory formerly ruled by Verica. An alternative explanation might be a sailing from the mouth of the Rhine to Richborough, British resistance was led by Togodumnus and Caratacus, sons of the late king of the Catuvellauni, Cunobeline. A substantial British force met the Romans at a river crossing thought to be near Rochester on the River Medway, the battle raged for two days
2.
Gauls
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The Gauls were Celtic peoples inhabiting Gaul in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their Gaulish language forms the branch of the Continental Celtic languages. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as the bearers of the La Tène culture north of the Alps, Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their forces in large-scale military operations. They reached the peak of their power in the early 3rd century BC, after this, Gaul became a province of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls were culturally assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture, losing their tribal identities by the end of the 1st century AD. The Gauls of Gallia Celtica according to the testimony of Caesar called themselves Celtae in their own language, the name Gaul itself may be derived from Latin Galli, or it may be derived from the Germanic word Walha. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC, the Urnfield culture represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC, the Hallstatt culture evolved into the La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area, Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. Following the climate deterioration in the late Nordic Bronze Age, Celtic Gaul was invaded in the 5th century BC by tribes later called Gauls originating in the Rhine valley. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC and raided Italy as far as Sicily. A large number of Gauls served in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars, in the Aegean world, an invasion of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. However, according to the Roman legend of the gold of Delphi. One king Cerethrius invaded the Thracians, while another Gallic king Bolgios invaded Macedonia and Illyria where he killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos, in 278 BC Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war,4,000 Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 270 BC. According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Celts plotted “to seize Egypt, ”, Galatians also participated at the victorious in 217 BC Battle of Raphia under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic Dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor, after the defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor
3.
Vespasian
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Vespasian was Roman emperor from AD69 to AD79. Vespasian founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for twenty-seven years, Vespasian was from an equestrian family that rose into the senatorial rank under the Julio–Claudian emperors. While Vespasian besieged Jerusalem during the Jewish rebellion, emperor Nero committed suicide, after Galba and Otho perished in quick succession, Vitellius became the third emperor in April 69. The Roman legions of Roman Egypt and Judaea reacted by declaring Vespasian, their commander, emperor on 1 July 69. In his bid for power, Vespasian joined forces with Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Primus. Primus and Mucianus led the Flavian forces against Vitellius, while Vespasian took control of Egypt, on 20 December 69, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared Emperor by the Senate. Little information survives about the government during Vespasians ten-year rule and he reformed the financial system at Rome after the campaign against Judaea ended successfully, and initiated several ambitious construction projects. He began the building of the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known today as the Roman Colosseum, in reaction to the events of 68–69, Vespasian forced through an improvement in army discipline. Through his general Agricola, Vespasian increased imperial expansion in Britain, after his death in 79, he was succeeded by his eldest son Titus, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to be directly succeeded by his own natural son and establishing the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian was born in a village north-east of Rome called Falacrinae and his family was relatively undistinguished and lacking in pedigree. His paternal grandfather, Titus Flavius Petro, became the first to himself, rising to the rank of centurion. Subsequently he became a debt collector, petros son, Titus Flavius Sabinus, worked as a customs official in the province of Asia and became a money-lender on a small scale among the Helvetii. He gained a reputation as a scrupulous and honest tax-farmer, Sabinus married up in status, to Vespasia Polla, whose father had risen to the rank of prefect of the camp and whose brother became a Senator. Sabinus and Vespasia had three children, the eldest of whom, a girl, died in infancy, the elder boy, Titus Flavius Sabinus entered public life and pursued the cursus honorum. He served in the army as a tribune in Thrace in 36. The following year he was elected quaestor and served in Crete, the younger boy, Vespasian, seemed far less likely to be successful, initially not wishing to pursue high public office. He followed in his brothers footsteps when driven to it by his mothers taunting, during this period he married Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of Flavius Liberalis from Ferentium and formerly the mistress of Statilius Capella, a Roman equestrian from Sabrata in Africa. They had two sons, Titus Flavius Vespasianus and Titus Flavius Domitianus, and a daughter, Domitilla and his wife Domitilla and his daughter Domitilla both died before Vespasian became Emperor in 69
4.
David Morrissey
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David Mark Morrissey is an English actor, director, producer and screenwriter. At the age of 18, he was cast in the television series One Summer, after making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre for four years. Throughout the 1990s, Morrissey often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though he took roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend and Christopher Finzi in Hilary. The former earned him a Best Actor nomination at the British Academy Television Awards, in the years following those films, he had roles in Sense and Sensibility, Red Riding, Nowhere Boy and Centurion and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne. Morrissey returned to the stage in 2008 for a run of Neil LaButes In a Dark Dark House and he then starred in the British crime film Blitz, playing a morally dubious reporter in contact with the eponymous cop killer. The following year, he portrayed the Governor in AMC television series The Walking Dead as a regular in the third and fourth seasons. Morrissey has directed films and the television dramas Sweet Revenge. His feature debut, Dont Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010, in 2014 he appeared in The 7.39, another television drama. Morrissey was awarded a doctorate by Edge Hill University in July 2016. Morrissey was born in the Kensington area of Liverpool, the son of Joe, a cobbler, and Joan and he was their fourth child, following brothers Tony and Paul, and sister Karen Lane. The family lived at 45 Seldon Street, in the Kensington district of Liverpool, for National Museums Liverpools Eight Hundred Lives project, Morrissey wrote that the house had been in his family since around the turn of the 20th century. His grandmother had been married there and his mother was born there, in 1971, the family moved to a larger, modern house on the new estates at Knotty Ash, and Seldon Street was later demolished. As a child, Morrissey was greatly interested in film, television, after seeing a broadcast of Kes on television, he decided to become an actor. Keller left the school soon after, leaving Morrissey without encouragement and his secondary school, De La Salle School, had no drama classes and was the sort of place where Morrissey thought the fear of bullying dissuaded pupils from participating in lessons. On the advice of a cousin, Morrissey joined the Everyman Youth Theatre, for the first couple of weeks, he was quite shy and did not join in the workshops. When he eventually participated, he appeared in the theatres production of Fighting Chance. He went to the theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, by the age of 14, Morrissey was one of two youth theatre members who sat on the board of the Everyman Theatre. Ian Hart, with whom he had been friends since the age of five, was one of his contemporaries, as were Mark and Stephen McGann and Cathy Tyson
5.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
6.
Sam Mendes
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Samuel Alexander Sam Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He also is known for dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret and he directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In 2005, he received an achievement award from the Directors Guild of Great Britain. In 2008 The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 15 in their list of the 100 most powerful people in British culture, Mendes was born in Reading, Berkshire, the only child of Valerie Helene, an author of childrens books, and Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor. His father, who is from Trinidad, is of Portuguese and Italian descent and his grandfather was the Trinidadian writer Alfred Hubert Mendes. Mendes parents divorced when he was a child and he grew up in Oxfordshire and attended Magdalen College School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first in English. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Marlowe Society and directed several plays and he was also a brilliant schoolboy cricketer, according to Wisden and played for Magdalen College School in 1983 and 1984. He also played cricket for Cambridge University, aged 24 Mendes directed a production of Chekhovs The Cherry Orchard in the West End that starred Judi Dench. Soon he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his productions, many of them featuring Simon Russell Beale, included Troilus and Cressida, Richard III and The Tempest. He worked at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1988 as assistant director on a number of productions, including Major Barbara, and directing in The Tent, the second venue. In 1990 Mendes was appointed director of the Donmar Warehouse. He spent his first two years overseeing the redesign of the theatre, and his production was Stephen Sondheims Assassins in 1992. The production was approached with a concept, differing greatly from both the original 1966 production directed by Harold Prince and the famed film version, directed by Bob Fosse. The Broadway cast included Cumming once again as Emcee, with Natasha Richardson as Sally, Mary Louise Wilson as Frau Schneider, Cumming and Richardson won Tony Awards for their performances. 1994 saw Mendes stage a new production of Lionel Barts Oliver, bart added new musical material and Mendes updated the book slightly, while the orchestrations were radically rewritten to suit the shows cinematic feel. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as Fagin, Sally Dexter as Nancy, Mendes, Pryce and Dexter received Olivier Award nominations for their work on Oliver. In 2003 Mendes directed a revival of the musical Gypsy, originally, he planned to stage this production in Londons West End with an eventual Broadway transfer, but when negotiations fell through, he brought it to New York. The cast included Bernadette Peters as Rose, Tammy Blanchard as Louise, Mendes also directed the 2014 Olivier Award-nominated stage adaptation of Roald Dahls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7.
David Bradley (actor)
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David John Bradley is an English actor. Other acting credits include the BBC series Our Friends in the North, the ITV series Broadchurch, and the films Hot Fuzz, The Worlds End and Captain America, The First Avenger. In 2012 he played Solomon in the episode of Doctor Who called Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and in 2013, Bradley portrayed William Hartnell in the Doctor Who drama An Adventure in Space and Time. Bradley was born in York, where he attended the Catholic St Georges Secondary Modern School and he first performed on stage in musical productions as a member of a youth club and with the Rowntree Youth Theatre. Bradley joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed at Laurence Oliviers National Theatre Company in the early 1970s and he first appeared on television in 1971, as a police officer in the successful comedy Nearest and Dearest. He was awarded a Laurence Olivier Award in 1991 for his role as the Fool in King Lear at the Royal National Theatre. He appeared in the Royal National Theatres 1997 production of The Homecoming, as well as productions of The Caretaker at Sheffield Theatres, Bradley played fictional Labour Member of Parliament Eddie Wells in the 1996 award-winning BBC Two serial Our Friends in the North. In 1996, he appeared as gangster Alf Black in Band of Gold, in 1998, he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair as the miserly Sir Pitt Crawley, and Our Mutual Friend as the villainous Rogue Riderhood. Other television appearances include the 2001 series The Way We Live Now, directed by David Yates, from 2002–04 Bradley starred as Jake in the BBC comedy series Wild West. Bradley acted in the 2004 musical drama serial Blackpool on BBC One and he had a small role in a 2006 episode of the series Taggart. In 2003, he played Tom in the Midsomer Murders episode The Green Man and he appeared as the electrolarynx-using gangster Stemroach in the BBC comedy series Ideal and as Electric in the BBCs Thieves Like Us, as well as the BBC One series True Dare Kiss in 2007–08. Bradley appeared in the 2002 film Nicholas Nickleby, and had a role in the 2007 comedy film Hot Fuzz as a farmer who illegally hoards weapons. He played Cohen the Barbarian in a Sky One adaptation of The Colour of Magic in 2008 and that same year he appeared as Spooner in a production of No Mans Land at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, which later transferred to Londons West End. In 2009, Bradley appeared as a rights activist in the popular BBC drama Ashes to Ashes. Bradley portrayed Will Somers, Henry VIIIs court fool, in an episode of the Showtime series The Tudors in 2009, in 2010, he appeared in the film Another Year, which earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the London Film Critics Circle Awards. In 2011,2013 and 2016, Bradley appeared as Lord Walder Frey in the HBO series Game of Thrones, in January 2017 Bradleys agency, United Agents, confirmed he would appear in the seventh season of the show later that year. Bradley played Solomon, a buccaneer, in the 2012 Doctor Who episode Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. He previously provided voice work for The Sarah Jane Adventures serial Death of the Doctor and it was announced in January 2013 that Bradley had been cast as actor William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time, a BBC docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who in 1963
8.
Kelly Reilly
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Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly is an English actress. Her performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse made her a star of the London stage, Reilly was born and brought up in Chessington, Surrey, England, the daughter of a hospital receptionist mother, and Jack Reilly, a police officer. She attended Tolworth Girls School in Kingston, which was a school where she studied drama for GCSE. Six years later, she appeared alongside Helen Mirren in the film Last Orders. Her first professional role was followed by a series of parts on the English stage and she worked with Terry Johnson in four productions, Elton John’s Glasses, The London Cuckolds, The Graduate and Piano/Forte. Johnson wrote Piano/Forte for her and said, Kelly is possibly the most natural, dyed-in-the-wool, Reilly has stated that she learned the most as an actor from Karel Reisz, who directed her in The Yalta Game in Dublin in 2001. She said, He was my masterclass, there is no way I would have been able to do Miss Julie if I hadnt done that play. By 2000, Reilly felt she was being typecast in comedy roles and this was followed by a role in the Royal Courts 2001 rerun of Sarah Kanes Blasted. The Times called her theatrical Viagra, in 2002, Reilly starred alongside Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris as Wendy, an English Erasmus student, in the French comedy LAuberge espagnole. She resumed her role in the 2005 sequel, Les Poupées russes, also in 2005, Reilly had roles in such films as Mrs Henderson Presents and Pride & Prejudice. Reillys first lead came in 2008 in the horror film Eden Lake and, in 2009. Reilly also appeared in three films, Sherlock Holmes, Triage, and Me and Orson Welles. In 2011, Reilly reprised her role as Mary Watson in Sherlock Holmes, in 2012, Reilly appeared opposite Sam Rockwell in A Single Shot and had a leading role in Robert Zemeckis Flight opposite Denzel Washington. In 2014, Reilly starred with Greg Kinnear in the film Heaven is for Real, in 2015, Reilly starred in the second season of HBOs True Detective as Jordan Semyon, the wife of Vince Vaughns character Frank Semyon. The same year, Reilly made her Broadway debut opposite Clive Owen, reillys performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse made her a star of the London stage and earned her a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress of 2003. Aged 26, she was the youngest person nominated for that award. In 2005, she won Best Newcomer Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as Wendy in The Russian Dolls, in 2006, Reilly won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer for her role in the British comedy film, Mrs Henderson Presents. She was nominated again for an Olivier Award for her performance as Desdemona in the acclaimed production of Othello at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009
9.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas
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Nikolaj Lie Kaas is a prominent Danish actor whose career rose in the 1990s and who is still actively working today. He has hosted the Zulu Comedy Galla on Danish TV three times and he is the son of actor Preben Kaas and actress/writer Anne Mari Lie. In 2002 and 2012, he won the Robert Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, in 2012, he received the Lauritzen Award. Nikolaj Lie Kaas at the Internet Movie Database
10.
Mackenzie Crook
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Paul James Mackenzie Crook is an English actor, director, comedian and BAFTA-winning writer. Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent and he grew up in Dartford, Kent. He was raised by Michael Crook, a British Airways employee, and Sheila Crook, as a child, he was put on a course of hormone therapy for three years due to a growth hormone deficiency. In the summers, he spent time at his uncles farm in northern Zimbabwe. He was offered his first major role as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4s The Eleven OClock Show in 1998. He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001, in late 1999 he hosted the short-lived ITV1 show Comedy Café in the guise of his Charlie Cheese character. The show made by Channel X for ITV1 had Charlie Cheese interviewing various celebrities about their latest live tour, book, in 2001, he auditioned for the role of Gareth Keenan in Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant popular mockumentary The Office. Written originally for a larger, thuggish actor, Crook won the role, neither Crook nor Arenberg were featured in the 2011 movie Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides. He has appeared in adverts as the character for Visa and M&Ms and he has also featured as himself in adverts for MTV, Film Four and as a voiceover artiste for motor insurance company Green Flag in 2007. In 2010 he provided a voice over in an advertisement for the electrical retailer Currys, Crook also appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radfords 2004 film adaptation of Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice and had a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher. Other films he has appeared in include The Gathering and The Brothers Grimm, Crook has starred in three of Tim Plester and Ben Gregors short films, as Gary Tibbs in Ant Muzak, as Servalan in Blakes Junction 7, and as Glorious George in World of Wrestling. All three of these films have been released on DVD and he also performed a duet with Ricky Gervais in the Concert for Diana. Crook played the role of Paul Callow in the British comedy film Three and Out. He also provided his voice and movements to a character in Steven Spielbergs The Adventures of Tintin, The Secret of the Unicorn, which began filming in January 2009 and was released in 2011. Crook starred in Wyndham Prices drama Abrahams Point as Comet Snape and appeared in City of Ember as Looper and he also appeared in Big Brother Celebrity Hijack and the ITV drama Demons as the vampire Dr. Gladiolus Hadilus Tradius Thrip. In January 2009, Crook featured in the second and third episodes of the series of the E4 hit teen cult drama Skins. He appeared in Merlin, for the first episode of the season, as Cedric. In November 2010 Mackenzie starred in A Reluctant Tragic Hero, a play by Anton Chekhov, on the Sky Arts channel
11.
Stanley Weber
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Stanley Weber is a French actor and theatre director. He is best known for his performance as Juan Borgia in the television series Borgia, Stanley Weber was born on 13 July 1986 in Paris, France, to actor Jacques Weber and his wife Christine. He has a sister, Kim, and a brother, Tommy, Weber received his first acting lessons at Cours Florent, and then enrolled acting at the Conservatoire national supérieur dart dramatique. He also studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, official Website Stanley Weber at the Internet Movie Database Staney Weber at ECI Global Talent Management
12.
Joe Armstrong (actor)
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Joe Armstrong is an English actor. His notable television roles include Allan A Dale in three series of Robin Hood, Hotspur in Henry IV, Part I, Ashley Cowgill in Happy Valley, on stage, he played the lead role in D. C. Moores The Empire and appeared in the 2011 revival of Flare Path and he co-starred with Maxine Peake in Miss Julie at the Royal Exchange and with Louise Brealey in a touring production of Constellations. Joe Armstrong is the son of actor Alun Armstrong and his wife Sue and he has an older brother, Tom, and a younger brother, Dan, who is in the band Clock Opera. He was born and raised in London, and he attended Elliott School in Putney from 1993 to 1997. He then studied at the University of Bristol, where he acted in The Brecht Project—a collection of scenes from the works of Bertolt Brecht—in 1998 and he is a fan of AFC Wimbledon. Joe Armstrongs first television role was a bit part in a 2003 episode of The Bill, in the 2004 BBC film Passer By, he had a supporting role as one of two men accused of assaulting a woman on a train. He guest starred in the 2004 Waking the Dead episode Fugue States as a man who reappears with amnesia after being abducted as a child. Also in 2004, he played the son of a farmer in the Foyles War episode They Fought in the Fields. In 2006, Armstrong was cast in the BBC series Robin Hood as Allan—based on the legendary figure Alan-a-Dale—who joins Robins band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest, Allan later becomes allied with the sympathetic villain Guy of Gisborne but has a change of heart and rejoins his friends. Armstrong appeared in all three series from 2006 to 2009, the series was filmed on location in and around Budapest. Armstrong portrayed Norman Heatley in the 2009 BBC Four film Breaking the Mould about the team who turned penicillin into a viable medicine, in 2010, he co-starred with Billie Piper in the two-part drama A Passionate Woman as the husband of a woman who has an affair. His father Alun Armstrong played the version of his character. He guest starred in an episode of Hustle in 2011, and he appeared in Public Enemies starring Daniel Mays and Anna Friel in 2012. Armstrong played Hotspur in Richard Eyres 2012 production of Henry IV and he employed a Geordie accent for the role. Jeremy Irons played Henry IV, with Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal and Alun Armstrong as Hotspurs father, the Earl of Northumberland. In the 2013 drama The Village, depicting life in a Derbyshire village in the early 20th century, he plays Stephen Bairstow, the character was originally a minor one, but writer Peter Moffat expanded the role because he was impressed with Armstrong. He reprised his role in the series in 2014
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