A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Ray Kingsley

Ray Kingsley was born on the 23rd of February 1959 in Liverpool. He first appeared on our TV screens in one episode of 'Second City Firsts' (1978), a BBC drama anthology series of short plays, written largely by first-time writers. In the same year he appeared in an episode of 'Z-Cars' (1978) as Mick. However his main claim to fame would come as a character created by the Huyton born writer Alan Bleasdale, initially in books, as the slow witted Mooey Morgan the friend of Franny Scully. Sandy Ross had joined Granada Television in 1976 after working as a solicitor in Edinburgh. He had met and got quite friendly with Alan Bleasdale and thought the Scully books were absolutely fantastic so he managed to convince Alan that Scully and his mate Mooey, should be the stowaways on the ship, the Mersey Pirate. Scully had been serialised on Radio Merseyside with Alan Bleasdale reading the book. Alan would write the stuff, almost like a spin off of the Scully books, for Granada TV’s short-lived Saturday morning children’s show, 'The Mersey Pirate' (1979). The show was designed to fill the gap while the more anarchic 'Tiswas' was off air and was filmed on real life Mersey ferry, The Royal Iris.

Alan Bleasdale had left teaching in 1975 to concentrate full-time on his writing, and took up bursaries at Liverpool Theatre and the Contact in Manchester. The Scully and Mooey characters were based upon two boys in a Huyton remedial school where Alan had taught. Scully appeared on stage for the first time at the Everyman, in a piece put together by resident actors Pete Postlethwaite and Julie Walters. The show played pubs and clubs as part of the theatre’s Vanload company touring programme. Later, having already put Scully on stage, the character was broadened further for Alan Bleasdale’s first 'Play for Today' (1978), 'Scully’s New Year’s Eve'. With Andrew Schofield in the title role, and Ray Kingsley as his dim-witted mate, Mooey Morgan, as the title suggests, the play is set on New Year’s Eve in the Scully family home.

Scully’s New Year’s Eve

Following on from his critically acclaimed 'Boys from the Black Stuff', writer Alan's 'Scully', broadcast on Channel 4 in 1984, was a surreal TV comedy about a Liverpool lad with big dreams of making it at Liverpool FC. The show's central character was a 15-year-old schoolboy called Francis Scully, played by Kirkby born actor Andrew Schofield, and his friend 'Mooey' played by Ray Kingsley. Set in Huyton, the central plot concerned the efforts of Scully's teachers to persuade the schoolboy to realise his talent and appear in a school pantomime with the promise of a trial at Liverpool FC. Originally in the books Franny's hero was Kevin Keegan but by the time it took to get the show on TV that had changed to Kenny Dalglish. Many feel the great unsung hero of the story was Mooey, played by Ray, who was an amazing young man, a really quite extraordinary character. He created the character of Mooey himself and it was the relationship between Scully and Mooey that lead to the success of the series rather than the character of Scully alone. 

Ray here with Andrew Schofield and Gilly Conman

 

Ray later appeared in the comedy drama 'The Love Child' (1987) as a Housing Officer and then in 3 episodes of the TV mini series 'The Marksman' (1987), a moody and somewhat stylized three part thriller about a professional killer who returns to Liverpool from self-imposed exile in Spain when his son is murdered. The following year would see his final appearances on TV in 'Playing For Real' (1988) and in 'The Zero Option' (1988).

Ray tragically died at such an early age on the 12th of March, 1990 in Birkenhead, Cheshire. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/01/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians.html