Michael Elwyn

The son of an Anglican clergyman, Elwyn moved with his family from Wales to Stratford when he was five years old.^[1] Initially, he planned to become a barrister and follow in the family's footsteps of having a career in law since his mother and grandfather were magistrates. However, an interest in acting caused him to change his career path.^[2]

Elwyn started acting at the age of 10 when he was at Preparatory School but did not take it up seriously until attending Marlborough Public School from 1956 to 1961. There, he received encouragement from the drama teacher and played the lead in a production of George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan. Winning a place at Oxford University at age 18, Elwyn studied English^[3] but spent most of his time acting and took part in 16 university productions, touring to places such as France, Israel and Ireland, as well as performing in the West End. Aged 21, he sat his final examinations but did not get his degree.^[2][4]

Dropping his academic work for a professional acting career, Elwyn started his way up by appearing in repertory. Due to there already being an actor named Emrys Jones, he had to change his surname to Elwyn for acting purposes.^[5]

Television work includes regular roles as Richard Duncan in seven episodes of Doomwatch, Lt. Henry Percival in seven episodes of The Regiment, the Hon. Greville Carnforth in The Carnforth Practice, Roger Powell in 20 episodes of Triangle, Timmy Gould in seven episodes of The Brief, CDI Simpson in Sam Saturday, Rev. Henry Mills in two series of Bad Girls and Sir Edward in the BBC series of Robin Hood. In 2020, Elwyn joined the cast of Coronation Street playing Charles Moore, Resident Chair of 'Stillwaters'.

It was while appearing in BBC wartime drama No Bananas that Elwyn began a relationship with his onscreen wife Alison Steadman. They subsequently left their own spouses (actress Naomi Buch and director Mike Leigh; the former died shortly afterwards in 1996 while the latter's divorce didn't come through until 2001) and moved in together.^[6][7] The couple live in Highgate, London.^[8]