Paul Nicholas is an English actor and singer who began his journey on silver screen in the 1970s acting in films like ‘French Intrigue’ (1970), ‘See No Evil’ (1971), ‘What Became of Jack and Jill?’ (1972) and ‘Stardust’ (1974). In 1975, he had 3 film releases – the musical fantasy drama ‘Tommy’, the musical comedy ‘Three for All’ and the surreal biographical musical comedy ‘Lisztomania’. In the first film, he played the role of the evil cousin – Cousin Kevin – of the lead character while in the last one he was seen in the role of the German composer and theatre director Richard Wagner. Both films were directed by Ken Russell. This was followed by roles in the fantasy comedy adventure film ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1978), the romance drama ‘The World Is Full of Married Men’ (1979), the musical drama 'Yesterday's Hero' (1979) and the musical romance drama 'The Jazz Singer' (1980). The period from 1970 to 1980 also saw him working on television as he went on to appear in an episode each of TV series ‘The Wednesday Play’ (1970), ‘Till Death Us Do Part’ (1972), ‘Softly Softly: Task Force’ (1974), ‘Play for Today’ (1976), ‘CHiPs’ (1980) and ‘Ladykillers’ (1980). In 1978, he hosted his own music entertainment show called ‘Paul’ and the following year was seen alongside Su Pollard in the short-lived comedy sitcom ‘Two Up, Two Down’.
Paul Nicholas continued acting in films in the 1980s and acted in the fantasy musical romance film ‘Alicja’ in 1982. He was then seen in the lead roles in the 1982 musical drama film ‘Nutcracker’ and the 1983 comedy movie ‘Invitation to the Wedding’. Additionally, he was also seen in a television movie ‘Doubting Thomas’ (1983). The year 1983 also saw him in the role that made him a household name in the country. This was the BBC sitcom ‘Just Good Friends’ wherein he played the lead role of Vincent Pinner, an ex-ice cream salesman turned bookmaker who meets his former lover five years after he left her on the wedding day. The series for which he also sang the theme tune, was extremely successful and ran for three seasons till 1986. It bagged the 1987 ‘BAFTA Award’ for best comedy series and Paul Nicholas, himself, won a ‘BAFTA’ nomination in 1985 for Best Light Entertainment Performance.
The series was followed by two highly successful ITV series. In the first series titled ‘Bust’ (1987-1988), he played the role of a businessman Neil Walsh who goes bankrupt and tries to start over again while in the second series ‘Close to Home’ (1989-1990), he portrayed the character of vet James Shepherd who is dealing with both professional and personal problems. Apart from these, he also narrated two animated series – ‘Creepy Crawlies’ (1987-1988) and ‘The Adventures of Spot’ (1987-1993). During this period, he also appeared as himself in numerous television specials and documentaries, especially the four Royal variety shows including ‘Royal Variety Performance 1984’ (1984), ‘Children's Royal Variety Performance’ (1985), ‘The Royal Variety Show’ (1986) and ‘The Royal Variety Performance 1989’ (1989). Apart from these, he was seen in Comic Relief’ (1988), ‘A Night of Comic Relief 2’ (1989) and ‘A Royal Gala’ (1989) too. In 1991, he was also the subject of the TV series documentary 'This Is Your Life'.
In the year 2000, Paul Nicholas was seen in the roles of David Janus in the comedy drama series ‘Sunburn’ and Ronnie Buchan in the crime drama series ‘Burnside’. This was followed by an episode each appearance in TV series ‘The Bill’ (2003), ‘Holby City’ (2006), ‘Heartbeat’ (2006) and ‘Missing’ (2010) as well as three episodes of ‘Doctors’ (2000-2012). In between, in 2008, he played the role of Alan Boon in the romance drama TV movie ‘Consuming Passion’ and Mr Woods in 48 episodes of the drama series ‘The Royal Today’. In 2015, he joined the cast of the long running TV series ‘EastEnders’ and played the role of Gavin Sullivan in its 31 episodes till 2016. The year 2016 also saw him in a couple of feature films – the sports comedy drama ‘The Gridiron’ (role: Mr. Stanyer) and the Czech-Slovak drama film ‘A Prominent Patient’ (role: politician Neville Chamberlain).
The period also saw him appearing in several TV movie documentaries, TV series documentaries and TV special as himself. Some of these are ‘Greasemania’ (2003), ‘I'm Dreaming of a TV Christmas’ (2003), ‘The 100 Greatest Musicals’ (2003), ‘Happy Birthday, Peter Pan’ (2005), ‘The Greatest Christmas Comedy Moments’ (2008), ‘The Comedy Genius of John Sullivan’ (2011), ‘Bowie: The Man Who Changed the World’ (2016), ‘The Real Marigold Hotel’ (2017), ‘The Real Marigold on Tour’ (2017-2019) and ‘Cats and the Movie Musical’ (2019).
In his career, Paul Nicholas has also been a successful musical theatre artist and has starred in numerous stage musicals. Some of these are ‘Hair’ (1969), ’ Grease’(1970,), ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ (1972), ‘Pippin’ (1973), ‘Pilgrim’ (1974-75), ‘Cats’ (1981), ‘Blondel’ (1983-1984), ‘Charlie Girl’ (1986-1987), ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ (1986), ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ (1990), ‘Barnum’ (1991), ‘Singin' in the Rain’ (1995), ‘Camelot’ (1996), ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (1998-99), ‘Doctor Dolittle’ (2001), ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ (2003), ‘Blockbuster’ (2014) and ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2015).
Tommy is a satirical musical drama film which tells the story of a young boy who receives a terrible shock after seeing his stepfather murder his father over an argument. This makes him psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind. However, when he stumbles upon a pinball machine, his life takes a turn as he turns out to be a natural prodigy in the game. He soon becomes a champion and starts attracting a religious following.
The film, which is a sequel to That’ll be the Day, shows how rock-star, Jim MacLaine, rapidly climbs the ladder of success while he loses almost everything on personal front. Jim’s supposed best friend and manager Mike is largely the root cause, though he pretends to do everything for Jim’s good. Ultimately, the star ends up with drug addiction and other issues.
A modern retelling of the popular novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’, this musical fantasy romantic film revolves around a woman named Alice, who falls for a jogger named Rabbit.
French Intrigue is an action romantic drama thriller film which tells the story of Serge Morgan, a killer working for the American mafia. On a flight during an assignment, he gets acquainted with a woman named Jane, a rich daughter of an ambassador. However, he gets seriously wounded after being attacked by men working for the French drug kingpin Henri Emery. He manages to evade the men, after which he is provided shelter by Jane. Things get complicated when the two develop feelings for one another.
Yesterday’s Hero is a musical drama film which tells the story of an alcoholic former soccer star who decides that he needs to make a comeback. To get back to the game, he gets help from his ex-girlfriend, who is now a rock star, as well as her partner.
The World is Full of Married Men is a romantic drama film which tells the story of Linda Cooper, the wife of David Cooper, an ad executive, who spends time having adulterous affairs, despite the fact that he is married. Eventually, Linda manages to find out about his affairs, and therefore, she decides to get revenge by having an affair with a rock singer.
Nutcracker is a drama film which tells the story of a Russian ballerina who flees to England, after defecting from the USSR. With hopes of settling in London, she joins a ballet company which is run by a powerful and wealthy lady.
A marketing executive books a tour for a British music group, for a tour through Spain. However, they are soon told that they will need to adopt a cowboy image for the tour as a gimmick. In addition, their girlfriends will not be allowed to come along, since the group needs to focus on performing. Unwilling to stay away from their boyfriends, their girlfriends decide to book tickets as well, using their own savings.
This musical adventure comedy film tells the story of Sergeant Pepper’s famed musical group, which used to provide music to weary soldiers during the First World War. Ever since then, he and his band has been spreading the message of joy, love and peace to the world. After he passes away, it is up to Billy Shears, his grandson, to carry on the group’s tradition.
