Dexter Fletcher

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Dexter Fletcher
Born	Dexter Fletcher 31 January 1966 (1966-01-31) (age 42) North London, England
Occupation	Actor, Writer
Years active	1976-present
Spouse(s)	Dalia Ibelhauptaite (1997-present)

Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English actor, best known for his lead role as Spike Thomson in the British TV comedy Press Gang, alongside Julia Sawalha.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Acting work

He trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School.^[1] Fletcher's first film part was as Baby Face in Bugsy Malone (1976). He made his stage debut the following year in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. As a child actor Fletcher was a regular feature in British productions in the early 1980s such as The Long Good Friday, The Elephant Man, and The Bounty. As an adult, he has appeared on television as rebellious teenager Spike Thompson in Press Gang and also Murder Most Horrid (1991) with Dawn French. His American accent was so convincing that he often was mistaken for a genuine American.^[2] He has starred in the films The Rachel Papers (1989), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Layer Cake (2004) and Universal's Doom as a communications officer nicknamed "Pinky".^[3]

On television, he has appeared in the major BBC / HBO drama, Band of Brothers and in a supporting role in the BBC One historical drama The Virgin Queen (US PBS 2005, UK 2006). He also appeared in Kylie Minogue's 1997 released music video Some Kind of Bliss. Fletcher has starred on BBC One in two series based on the Imogen Edwards-Jones's book, Hotel Babylon (the third season is currently being broadcast in the UK).^[1] He also appeared in one episode, "The Booby and the Beast", of BBC's Robin Hood series 2 as the German Count Friedrich.

[edit] Presenting

In 1993, he tried his hand at presenting for the now defunct Channel 4 show Gamesmaster. The TV show was in its third series, and rumour had it that the then current presenter Dominik Diamond wasn't happy about the show's direction to draft in McDonalds as a sponsor, and so left the show. Dexter was originally planned to be a special guest on the third series, but was then asked if he wanted to be the presenter.

Fletcher recalls that presenting GamesMaster was "very unforgiving" and "quite intimidating". The most difficult part was "just getting up, taking a deep breath and going out there and doing it".^[4] His style of presenting was heavily criticised by viewers, in which they said his "in-your-face" method was too "over the top" and didn't suit the show. Without his fake accent, some viewers thought his genuine Cockney slang was actually put on for the effect of making the show seem more trendy.^{[citation needed]} The series finished in 1994 and Dominik returned for the last four series up to when the show ended in January 1998.

Dexter provided spoken-word vocals for a section of the song "Here Comes the Flood" by The Divine Comedy.

He is also the voice for McDonald's television adverts.

He is the narrator (using an American accent) of The Game audio book, written by Neil Strauss.

[edit] Personal life

Fletcher dated Press Gang co-star Julia Sawalha^[5]^[6] and also had a relationship with Liza Walker. He married Dalia Ibelhauptaite in 1997, and his best man was apparently fellow actor Alan Rickman.^[1]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1976	Bugsy Malone	Babyface
1989	The Rachel Papers	Charles Kingsley
1998	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	Soap
2001	Band of Brothers	John Martin
2002	Below	Kingsley
2004	Layer Cake	Cody
2005	Doom	Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski
2007	Stardust	Skinny Pirate