Ray Burdis

Who is Ray Burdis?

Ray Burdis is an English actor, screenwriter, director and film producer.

Burdis started acting at eleven years old when he trained at the Anna Scher Theatre in Islington. He appeared in an episode of the classic BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son when he was fifteen, but his first major role was at the age of sixteen, in the Thames Television series You Must Be Joking!, which he also co-created and wrote. He also starred with Phil Daniels in Four Idle Hands, at the time having two hit networked television shows running alternately in the same hour.

In 1978 Burdis auditioned for a presenting job on the BBC children's programme Blue Peter as a replacement for John Noakes. Richard Marson's book celebrating the show's fiftieth anniversary records this fact and film of the audition was shown at a BAFTA celebration in October 2008.

Burdis came to real prominence when he took the part of cowardly inmate Eckersley in the controversial movie Scum in 1979. He had played the same role two years earlier in a BBC television version of the story, although this was not transmitted for many years due to its graphic nature, hence the cinematic re-make. Burdis appeared in the "Minder" episode; "Not a Bad Lad, Dad," in the role disco youth. He later had a small role alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in the film Gandhi.