In four part crime thriller The Real Eddy English, Stephen Persuad plays the Eddy English of the title who gets caught up in conspiracy when he investigates the strange death of his uncle (who also happens to be called Eddy English), he teams up with his wonderfully named skinhead friend Mad Bastard (Sue Devaney) to try and find out what really happened to his uncle.
The serial was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Boyce had only recently started his writing career with credits on Brookside and it’s spin-off Damon and Debbie, in recent years he has most often teamed with naturalist director Michael Winterbottom. Stephen Persaud who plays Eddy, had made an impact in tense ITV drama The Fear the year before but this ended up being his only lead.
The highest profile name is that of TV legend Frank Windsor of Z Cars/Softly Softly fame, here plays the somewhat sinister Uncle Eddy. Hard working character actor Frank Mills plays Derek, Beryl Cooke was Mrs English and Helen Cotterill was Sadie English.
The Real Eddy English was a North South Partnership Limited production for Channel 4. Directed by David Attwood it aired between 11 April and 2 May 1989.
