Geoffrey McGivern

Geoffrey M McGivern is a British actor in film television radio and stage as well as a comedian He is best known for originating the role of Ford Prefect in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy He played Ford Prefect in the radio series 197880 and subsequent LP releases of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams whom he knew from Cambridge 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 he has appeared in TV shows such as Noels House Party Press Gang Chef Big Train Blackadder the Third Dish and Dishonesty as Ivor Biggun 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 the comedy show Big Train in 1998 and later that year for the 1998 radio SciFi drama Paradise Lost in Cyberspace Colin Swash BBC McGivern teamed up with old Hitchhikers colleague Stephen Moore and Lorelei King member of cast in the 2005 Hitchhikers radio show sequel He later played the Supreme Ruler in BBC2s scifi comedy Hyperdrive 20062007 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 series 3 of the TV series A Bit of Fry and Laurie In 2015 he gueststarred in EastEnders as Dickie Ticker the crude comic brought in by Mick Carter for Kush Kazemis stag night In 2016 he appeared in four episodes of the Disney Channel musical drama The Lodge as Patrick McGivern played the narrator Charlie Swinburne in the BBC Radios 2013 six part dramatisation of G K Chestertons The Club of Queer Trades 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 Since 2019 he has appeared as recurring character Barclay BegChetwynde in the BBC comedy Ghosts In 2022 he appeared as the main character Russ in Radio 4 comedy NoPlatformed The shows episode guide contains a humorous note about McGiverns extensive credit list by starting a list of his credits and then adding oh hundreds of things In 2024 he appeared as recurring character Lord Rookwood in the Apple TV series The Completely MadeUp Adventures of Dick Turpin