Career
As a child, he attended the Anna Scher children's theatre school in Islington, and in his teens appeared in Nanette Newman's children's cooking programme, Fun Food Factory and in several television plays and series, usually with his trademark rockabilly look. Also an extra with one line, ("Watch it mate!"), in an episode of Minder from 1980 entitled "Don't Tell Them Willie Boy was Here". He first came to wider public attention in the serial Annika in 1984, his first notable television role. He then subsequently appeared in the movie Wish You Were Here (1987), directed by David Leland and co-starring Emily Lloyd. Another notable television role was his portrayal of slick playboy Marcus Tandy in the infamous BBC1 soap opera Eldorado, which ran for just one year from 1992–93 and gained a reputation as one of the biggest television flops of all time. Nonetheless, the amount of coverage the programme received for its perceived low quality and lack of success would gain Birdsall much exposure, and from 1995 to 1999 he played one of the lead characters in another BBC1 programme, the successful futuristic action/adventure series Bugs.
He appeared in several episodes of the ITV police drama The Bill in 2003 as a character named Ron Gregory, a convicted paedophile, and for the same network appeared as a regular in series 3-5 of the popular drama Footballer's Wives.
He had a small role in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in August 2012, playing John Hewland, jilted fiancé of Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), in two episodes.
Read more about this topic: Jesse Birdsall
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)