Arts Taunton welcomes Ian McNeice to Tyca!

Ian is well known to the public as Bert Large in the immensely popular 'Doc Martin' or as Winston Churchill in 'Doctor Who’.  

Ian attended Taunton School where his love of Acting began. He was a member of the Drama Society which meant he not only appeared in several plays but he was also able to join in the many organised trips to see plays at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre

Ian tells us that he looks back fondly at the start of his own artistic career and that he is delighted to be able to introduce this year's Tyca Festival. We are very grateful for his help in this. His experience and willingness to encourage young people into the arts and to help us celebrate their achievements is most welcome.

IAN McNEICE'S RESUME

Ian originally attended Thone Prep School and left Taunton School in 1968.

He then spent 2 years as an Acting ASM at the Salisbury Playhouse in Wiltshire. After which he attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1971-74.

After a few years in Regional Theatre he was asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for 4 years. Ending with the 9 hour version of 'Nicholas Nickelby' on Broadway.

Ian McNeice's television breakthrough was as Harcourt in the award-winning series Edge of Darkness with Bob Peck. He played the alcoholic sous chef Gustave La Roche on the television series Chef! opposite Lenny Henry and went on to appear in the 2000 mini series Frank Herbert's Dune as the evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen with William Hurt; a role he later reprised for the 2003 sequel Children of Dune with Susan Sarandon.

His television appearances have included all nine series of Doc Martin with Martin Clunes, in which he plays Bert Large.

He appears as the Newsreader in the HBO/BBC historical drama series Rome from 2005 onwards.

McNeice has also appeared in a number of films, including 84 Charing Cross Road with Anthony Hopkins, Day of the Dead with Ving Rames, No Escape with Ray Liotta, From Hell with Jonnie Depp and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain with Hugh Grant.

His breakthrough into American films occurred when he played Fulton Greenwall in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls opposite Jim Carrey (1995). He played the Nazi, Gerhard Klopfer, in the 2001 BBC/HBO television film Conspiracy with Stanley Tucci and Kenneth Branagh. Since then, he has been in Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan (2004) and the 2005 supernatural thriller, White Noise, with Michael Keaton.

He also appeared as Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donnie Osmond and Joan Collins.

He had a cameo role as Joachim von Kortzfleisch, a German general who refused to put his troops under the command of officers plotting to depose Hitler's government, in Valkyrie playing opposite Tom Cruise.

Recently he was in The Man who invented Christmas with Dan Stevens.

He appeared as Winston Churchill in four episodes of Doctor Who in 2010 and 2011; he had previously played Churchill in the 2008 premiere production of the Howard Brenton’s play, Never So Good, at the National Theatre, and later played him again in the 2012 stage version of The King's Speech at Wyndhams Theatre in the West End. Recently he played Cardinal Wolesley at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Henry VIII.

In April 2021 Ian is due to make the 10th and Final Series of Doc Martin.