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After beginning his career as a civil/structural draughtsman, Michael changed direction slightly and went to drama school in Birmingham. He co-founded Middle Ground a few years later, after Michael had worked in rep, panto, small-scale touring and Theatre in Education - taking roles ranging from Richard III (complete with Larry wig), to Frank in Shaffer’s White Liars.
Michael made his directing debut in 1995 with his interpretation of the Priestley classic An Inspector Calls (complete with workshops), which played in Scotland/the Highlands and Islands for ten weeks to much acclaim. In 1998 he directed Spring and Port Wine, the highly successful The Holly and the Ivy with Barry Foster, Dermot Walsh and Tony Britton, in which he also played Cousin Richard, Dangerous Corner with Lewis Collins and An Ideal Husband with Richard Walsh.
In 2001 he directed and adapted for the stage Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, which starred George Sewell and Patrick Robinson, and directed Present Laughter with Ann Charleston. In 2002 he directed and played Peter Kyle in Rattigan’s Flare Path, which starred Colin Baker. In 2003 he directed a national tour of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter in which he also played Fred Jesson. In 2004/2005 he directed the first leg of Dial M For Murder’s mammoth tour (with Steven Pinder as Tony Wendice), in which he also played Inspector Hubbard.
Television work includes Blackpool, Dream Team, Doctors, Vote For Them, and Sweet Seventeen for the BBC, Coronation Street for Granada, The One Game for Central and The Widow Maker for Central Films. He also played the semi-regular DS Jim Garland in Crossroads.
Previous roles for Middle Ground include Tony Wendice in Dial M for Murder, Jack Manningham in Gaslight, Harold Crompton in Spring and Port Wine, Inspector Martin in The Late Edwina Black, Arthur Fitton in The Family Way, Gerald Croft and Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls, Walter Ormund in I Have Been Here Before, Dr Shlessinger in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Robert Caplan in Dangerous Corner and Fred in Present Laughter. Michael also played John Ruskin in Pre-Raphaelite Seeds on two national tours, for a number of festivals and in the drawing room of John Ruskin’s last home in the Lakes.
In another life he was a drummer and singer with the Birmingham-based band the Long Rifles, with whom he toured Belgium.
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