Biography
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Bradley Clarkson’s experience did not merely start with his enrolment at Mountview or being selected from thousands to be on ITV’s reality talent show, Grease is the Word. From childhood he had been singing and acting, inspired by his guitarist father Eric, and whether it was church nativities, school musicals or plays at the London School of Economics, Bradley’s name was always on the cast list.
Brought up in Hertfordshire, much of Bradley’s early experience was in and around the county. He has a soft spot for his local theatre the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage and his time at Haileybury College in Hertford shaped his desires to become an actor.
Bradley was a very active member of the university drama society and by the time he was graduating with a degree in politics and history knew that really the right thing to do was go to drama school! After developing his craft at the Bristol Old Vic, Bradley concentrated on his musical theatre skills at Mountview. Whilst there he successfully applied to be on Grease is the Word. A rollercoaster journey ensued through the televised auditions and boot camp, culminating in Bradley featuring on four live shows and reaching the semi-finals, singing a range of songs from Abba to Phil Collins to songs from Grease, out to eight million people on Saturday nights.
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Bradley has embarked on a wide and varied stage career. Immediately after his Mountview showcase, a performance which earned him Best Male Newcomer, from The Stage, he appeared at the Finborough Theatre in Charles Miller and Kevin Hammond’s acclaimed new musical When Midnight Strikes, playing the part of Alex, and can be heard on that show’s cast recording. After honing his comedy skills in a sell out run of The News Revue at the Canal Café Theatre, and playing Starkey the pirate in Piers Chater Robinson’s Peter Pan – A British Musical at the Gordon Craig, Stevenage, Bradley appeared as Arthur in Ray Davies’ from The Kinks semi-autobiographical musical at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, Come Dancing. This show attracted much attention, and was particularly special for Bradley as it involved him singing a song about the joys of British ‘new towns’, including his hometown of Stevenage.
2009 saw Bradley in repertory at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, taking the role of ‘Sebastian’ in Twelfth Night and ‘Edwin/Gossamer’ in The Wolf and the Lamb. Whilst based at this beautiful Georgian playhouse Bradley took part in its ‘Restoring the Repertoire’ programme, a series of study sessions and play readings aimed at re-visiting unknown works from the Restoration and Georgian era.
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The rest of the year for Bradley was spent up in Liverpool at the Royal Court Theatre playing the character of ‘Mark’ in Willy Russell’s new musical adaptation of his play Our Day Out. The musical was a great success and proved that the rule an actor should never work with children or animals is totally false – both were the stars of the show!
Every year since leaving Mountview Bradley has been lucky enough to have had a pantomime season, progressing from the ‘Villain Graspin’ in Beauty and the Beast at Grantham, to ‘Jack the Miller’s Son’ in Puss in Boots at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, through to playing the title role in Dick Whittington at Greenwich and again last Christmas in the snow: Dick Whittington at Buxton Opera House.
Bradley's agents: David Marsden and Paul Martin at Sainou.com.
