Tony Gardner

Tony Gardner born 10 January 1964 is an English actor and doctor He sits on the national governing body of the actors trade union Equity He attended St Augustines Catholic College in Trowbridge Gardner qualified as a physician at Guys Hospital in 1987 then as a general practitioner in 1993 He combined medicine and comedy during the 1990s as half of the awardwinning comedy duo Struck Off and Die with Phil Hammond Gardner eventually left medicine to become an actor starring in a number of TV commercials including that for the Renault Mégane He reached prominence playing Brian Johnson in CITVs My Parents Are Aliens episodes of which he also wrote and Michael the café owner in Jack Dees BBC sitcom Lead Balloon In 200910 he starred in three plays directed by Sir Peter Hall In 2011 he played Professor Tony Shales in the Channel 4 series Fresh Meat Between 2012 and 2020 he played John in five series of the critically acclaimed romantic drama series Last Tango in Halifax The programme attracted impressive ratings for BBC One with the third series posting an average of 78 million viewers Between 2013 and 2015 he appeared as Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Smith in three series of the wartime comedy Bluestone 42 about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick He appeared as Dan Miller MP in the BBC political comedy The Thick of It He was a main character of the music video Giant Peach by Wolf Alice He appeared in a variety of roles in Tracey Ullmans Show from 2016 He also appeared in an episode of the Netflix show Lovesick portraying Dylans father at surprise wedding anniversary party In January 2021 Gardner appeared in S11E1 of Not Going Out as a neighbour to Lee and Lucy He then appeared again in S12E4 in 2022