British Actors You Should Know: Michael Kitchen

We know him best as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, in the ITV drama Foyle's War, which ran for eight series between 2002 and 2015. But Michael Kitchen has performed in all sorts of roles, from the James Bond franchise to William Shakespeare, on radio, stage, and TV, beginning with his debut in a school production of Cymbeline in his hometown of Leicester. Inauspiciously, Kitchen was hit over the head by a fellow actor and left the stage to be stitched up at the local hospital. But at the age of 15, he auditioned for the prestigious National Youth Theatre, one of 80 candidates chosen from 1,300 applicants for roles in Coriolanus and A Midsummer Night's Dream in London. The Leicester City Council offered him a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London which he gratefully accepted, graduating in 1969 with an Acting Diploma. At RADA, he won the Emile Littler Award for outstanding talent.

Stage roles followed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford and at the National Theatre, and his distinctive looks, physical presence, and acting versatility have kept him busy ever since in a wide variety of roles for stage, TV, and film. Kitchen rarely gives interviews and has no online presence, preferring family life in Dorset to showbiz glamour. His offstage activities have included an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for the Village Education Project in Tanzania.

Let’s take a look at Kitchen’s roles over the years, starting with some Shakespeare!