Mark Stephen Moraghan is an English actor. He has appeared in many British drama series including Peak Practice, London's Burning and Heartbeat. He is most famous for being the narrator for the children's television showThomas & Friends from the seventeenth to twenty-first seasons, and his roles as Greg Shadwick in Brookside, Ray Wyatt in Dream Team, Owen Davies in Holby City and Adrian Atkins in Coronation Street.
Life and career
Moraghan was born in Toxteth, Liverpool on 27 January 1963. He started acting in 1978, when the BBC held auditions in his high school for the TV play Lies, and he was selected. On 14 May 1988, Moraghan started his professional acting career playing a ferryman in the comedy Help!, and he subsequently went on to play in many TV series and several films. His longest running role was Owen Davies, a Consultant Obstetrician, in Holby City which he played from 2001 until 2005. He also appeared in a television commercial for the fabric softener 'Bounce' in 1996 with fellow LiverpudlianKaty Carmichael. He was recently a member of the cast of the British independent film Allies. Moraghan may be best known for his acting, but he also sings and in 2006 he starred in a musical production of Willy Russell's "Our Day Out" at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre. He performed as a backing vocalist and percussionist in the Liverpool band Personal Column in the late 1970s. In 2006, Moraghan came second in the BBC singing competition Just the Two of Us. His singing partner was Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton with whom he sang classic songs like "Islands in the Stream" and "With You I'm Born Again". He has also appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank. He will starred and co-directed the made for TV filmStepdad. In 2008, Moraghan appeared in Celebrity MasterChef, reaching the final alongside Andi Peters and eventual champion Liz McClarnon. On 9 April 2009 it was announced that Moraghan was touring the UK in a theatre production of Brian Clemens' play Strictly Murder, alongside Nick Barclay, Katie Funk, David Rumelle and Miriam Miller. Moraghan's swing album, Moonlight's Back In Style was released on Linn Records on 14 September 2009. He sang the title song from the album on GMTV on 2 September 2009. From 2013 to 2017, Moraghan became the narrator on the children's television showThomas & Friends, succeeding both Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon. He is also narrator for the Thomas & Friends specials/films, King of the Railway, Tale of the Brave, ', Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, ' and . Despite having John Hasler and Joseph May take over his narration duties from 2018 onwards, Mark says that he will still work on Thomas & Friends. He returned in Season 22 to voice Dexter, an abandoned passenger coach who was found by Duck and restored as a mobile classroom. He also portrays Mr Evans, a stationmaster who reads books from The Railway Series, and other stories about Thomas and his friends to the audience in the web series "Storytime with Mr. Evans." Prior to narrating Thomas & Friends, Moraghan has appeared in other children's television showsThe Lodge and Wilderness Edge which were both dramas and both made for ITV's children's programming blockCITV. In 2017, he appeared as recurring character Tim Richards in Emmerdale. December 2017 Mark starred in Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime in Bournemouth where he played the devilish Fleshcreep.