Once a Derbyshire man
He started life as Robert Lindsay Stevenson on 13 December 1949. Born in Ilkeston, Robert Lindsay remains loyal to his Derbyshire roots. His father worked as a carpenter, and spent World War II serving in the Royal Navy on a minesweeper.

Robert's father was a blunt and direct man - and taught his son to be the same way. Lindsay's mother raised the kids and, in later years, became his most reliable critic. She unfailingly viewed all of his work and always gave him her honest opinion.

Setting the course
Like so many actors, Lindsay has an influential school teacher to thank for pushing him towards the stage. Still, when he enrolled in the drama programme of a technical college in Nottingham, his intention was to become a drama teacher. His mates at the Nottingham Playhouse soon set him right, and convinced him to enrol in RADA, where he finally accepted that acting was in his blood.

After graduation, Lindsay's first job was as a dialect coach but, soon after, he got a gig acting in a regional theatre group. In 1977, he took the part of Wolfie in the sitcom Citizen Smith, and became a household name in the UK.

What hasn't he done?
As with many of Britain's pre-eminent actors, Lindsay honed his craft performing Shakespeare and spent much of the 80s taking on roles in BBC Shakespeare adaptations.

Since then, he has taken on a smorgasbord of roles with a galaxy of stars, including: Give Us a Break with Paul McGann; Fierce Creatures with John Cleese, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis; Me and My Girl on Broadway with Emma Thompson; Nightingales with David Threlfall and James Ellis; and The Hornblower series with Ioan Gruffudd and Paul McGann.

More recently he played opposite Paul Bettany in Wimbledon, Rachel Griffiths in Divorcing Jack, Sean Bean and Bill Nighy in an animated version of The Canterbury Tales, and took the role of none other than Tony Blair in the 2005 political satire, A Very Social Secretary. Phew! Plus, of course, he shines as the disgruntled dentist dad, Ben Harper, in My Family.

His family
Despite Lindsay's loyalty to Derbyshire, he now lives in Buckinghamshire with TV presenter and dancer Rosemarie Ford. They have two sons - Samuel and Jamie - but any similarity to the Harpers ends there! Robert balances his family duties with a career that's still going strong. His last major project was a four-part drama called Jericho where he took the role of Detective Inspector Michael Jericho, an East End Londoner with Jewish roots.

Lindsay has also started to put together material for an autobiography that has been commissioned by a major publisher. However, the publication date has not been decided since Lindsay is not quite done living yet!