It’s the same performance but different tracks for acting couple
People walking round York have seen a lot of Actor Andrew Dunn lately. Recognisable not just for his role as ‘Tony’ in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies, playing Alastair Campbell for seven years in Bremner, Bird and Fortune as well as Roger Stiles in Coronation Street from 2007 to 2008, Andrew has recently been nicknamed ‘Mr Yorkshire’ as the face of the new travel campaign iTravel York. London, however, is where Andrew is now headed to take up the role of Mr Perks in York Theatre Royal’s The Railway Children, currently playing at London’s Kings Cross.
Andrew’s wife will also be joining The Railway Children cast, but when the production returns to its original home at the National Railway Museum in York on 31 July. Andrina Carroll will be playing the children’s mother. The productions will run simultaneously over the summer holidays. With two performances a day at both locations, husband and wife will have just one day a week where they are able to spend time together, fortunately Andrew is now well versed in transport around York to speed up getting home to his family!
Andrew has appeared in numerous television series and his extensive theatre work includes the UK tours of Brassed Off and The Full Monty. Andrew was also in the original casts of John Godber’s Up ‘n’ Under, Bouncers and Catherine Cookson’s Fifteen Streets.
Film credits include Whoops, The Knife That Killed Me, Mr Right, Popcorn, The Jealous God, Ali G Indahouse and Between Two Women.
Andrina performed in The Railway Children at the world premiere at the National Railway Museum in 2008. She has also been part of the York Theatre Royal ensemble season when she appeared in The Crucible, Peter Pan and Forty Years On.
Both she and Andrew performed together in York Theatre Royal’s iShandy in 2013, and she also starred in film The Knife That Killed Me. Her television credits include the BBC’s Casualty,Doctors, Hands, and 55 Degrees North, ITV’s Heartbeat, Peak Practice, and Emmerdale, and Channel 4’s North Square and In Suspicious Circumstances.
Andrina will be performing to a bigger audience this time as a purpose built 1,000-seat theatre, complete with a railway track and platforms, and with a state of the art air conditioning and heating system, has been specially created on the site at the National Railway Museum. Named the Signal Box Theatre, York Theatre Royal, which has taken up residency at the museum whilst the theatre undergoes a £4.1 million redevelopment, shipped the theatre over from Canada where it was used for the award winning production in 2011. This is an increase of 400 seats compared to the theatre used in the 2008 and 2009 staging.
She said of her return
I am absolutely delighted to be returning to play Mother, one of my all-time favourite roles in one of the most exciting, vibrant productions I’ve ever been lucky enough to be involved in.
The Railway Children, returned to London on 16 December, it re-opens at its original home at the National Railway Museum in York from 31 July 2015. It is directed once again by York Theatre Royal’s Artistic Director Damian Cruden. Tickets are priced between £10 and £32.50 and can be bought by calling the Box Office on 01904 623568, securely online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person at York Theatre Royal’s new Box Office in De Grey Rooms, St Leonard’s Place.