Geoffrey McGivern


Geoffrey McGivern is a British actor in film, radio, stage and television.

Early life

McGivern was born in South London and grew up in York. There he first attended St George's RC Primary School then Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School, where he became head boy. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was involved in the Footlights and the Marlowe Society.

Career

He played Ford Prefect in the radio series and subsequent LP releases of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who he knew from University, and reprised the role for the four new series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 2004 and 2018. A more recent radio broadcast was in The Ape That Got Lucky and has appeared in TV shows such as Noel's House Party, Press Gang, Chef!, Big Train, Blackadder the Third, Chelmsford 123, Jonathan Creek, 15 Storeys High, Armstrong and Miller, Toast of London and series three of Peep Show.
McGivern appeared in the first series of cult comedy show Big Train in 1998, and later that year for the 1998 radio SciFi drama Paradise Lost in Cyberspace McGivern teamed up with old Hitchhiker's colleague Stephen Moore and Lorelei King. He later played the Supreme Ruler in BBC2's sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive. In 2007 he appeared in the BBC Radio 4 comedy Peacefully in their Sleeps and in 2008 he appeared as Professor John Mycroft in the BBC2 science sitcom Lab Rats and in the 2008 BBC series Little Dorrit where he played Mr Rugg. He also appeared in episode 5 of season 3 of the TV series A Bit of Fry and Laurie. In 2015, he guest-starred in EastEnders as Dickie Ticker, the crude comic brought in by Mick Carter for Kush Kazemi's stag night. In 2016, he appeared in four episodes of the Disney Channel musical drama The Lodge, as Patrick.
In 2017, he appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Back, written by Simon Blackwell, alongside David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Later that year, he began portraying the recurring role of Frank in the Netflix series Free Rein.