# Reece Dinsdale
**Reece Dinsdale** (born 1959) is an English actor and director from Normanton, West Yorkshire, known for the nuclear war drama *[Threads](https://www.edgepedia.org/threads-1984-film)* (1984), the sitcom *Home to Roost*, the film *I.D.*, and for playing Joe McIntyre in *Coronation Street* and Paul Ashdale in *Emmerdale*. In recent years he has worked increasingly behind the camera as a television director while continuing a stage career centered on [Yorkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/yorkshire).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959, Normanton, West Yorkshire[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) |
| Training | Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) |
| Breakthrough role | Jimmy Kemp in *Threads* (1984), Barry Hines's BAFTA-winning BBC drama about nuclear war[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [2](https://folkhorrorrevival.com/2019/09/19/reece-dinsdale-in-conversation/) |
| Sitcom fame | Matthew Willows, John Thaw's son, in *Home to Roost* (1985-1990)[3](https://coronationstreet.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale) |
| Film award | Special Jury Prize (International Critics Award) at the Geneva Film Festival for *I.D.* (1995)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) |
| Soap roles | Joe McIntyre in *Coronation Street* (2008-2010); Paul Ashdale in *Emmerdale* (April 2020 to April 2021)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [4](https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale) |
| Directing | Six single dramas for the BBC series *Moving On*; episodes of *Emmerdale*, *Coronation Street*, and *Pitching In*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [4](https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale) |
| Leeds Playhouse | First Associate Artist of the theater, appointed 2015[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) |
## Early career
Dinsdale was press-ganged into a school play at the age of 12 when the boy playing the lead in *Tom Sawyer* fell ill; he enjoyed the experience and decided in his early teens that he wanted to act[5](https://www.livingnorth.com/article/reece-dinsdale-talks-emmerdale-yorkshire-and-switching-roles). He left for London and drama school as a teenager and, after graduating from [Guildhall](https://www.edgepedia.org/guildhall), worked solidly through the 1980s, beginning in repertory theater[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/).
His screen debut came in 1983 in an adaptation of [Agatha Christie](https://www.edgepedia.org/agatha-christie)'s *The Secret Adversary*, followed immediately by the serial based on the same writer's *Partners in Crime* stories, playing office boy Albert in both[3](https://coronationstreet.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale). His stage break was the play *Red Saturday*, a comedy about professional football that toured before transferring to the Royal Court, where casting directors and producers noticed him[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/).
## Threads and Home to Roost
*Threads*, broadcast on [BBC One](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-one) in 1984, was Dinsdale's big television break. He described reading Barry Hines's script about a nuclear bomb detonating over [Sheffield](https://www.edgepedia.org/sheffield) and recognizing the writer's hand from *Kes* and *The Price of Coal*; he played Jimmy Kemp, a young father-to-be, whose character disappears halfway through the film[7](https://entertainment-focus.com/2018/11/26/reece-dinsdale-interview/). The drama won a BAFTA and drew plaudits for his performance[2](https://folkhorrorrevival.com/2019/09/19/reece-dinsdale-in-conversation/).
Immediately afterward came *Home to Roost*, the Yorkshire Television sitcom in which he played Matthew Willows opposite John Thaw across four series from 1985 to 1990. Producers had screen-tested younger actors for the 17-year-old son of Thaw's character without finding the right chemistry; Dinsdale, 25 at the start, was cast and hit it off with Thaw at the screen test. He later described the role as a mixed blessing: the show was a huge success, but he struggled for years afterward against being typed as a lightweight comedy actor[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/).
## Film and later television
In 1995 he took the lead in Phil Davis's film *I.D.*, a football-culture thriller that reversed the typecasting; the role won him the Special Jury Prize at the Geneva Film Festival[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/). He played Guildenstern opposite [Timothy Spall](https://www.edgepedia.org/timothy-spall)'s Rosencrantz in [Kenneth Branagh](https://www.edgepedia.org/kenneth-branagh)'s *[Hamlet](https://www.edgepedia.org/hamlet-1996-film)* (1996), and his television credits include *Spooks*, *Life on Mars*, *Conviction*, and *Silent Witness*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/).
Dinsdale joined *Coronation Street* as Joe McIntyre in 2008, remaining until the character's death on screen in February 2010[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [3](https://coronationstreet.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale). A decade later he played Paul Ashdale, the father of Vinny Dingle, in *Emmerdale* from April 2020 to April 2021[4](https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale).
## Directing
Dinsdale's shift behind the camera began with single dramas for [Jimmy McGovern](https://www.edgepedia.org/jimmy-mcgovern)'s BBC series *Moving On*, of which he has directed six; one of them, *Eighteen*, won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Daytime Programme[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/). He has directed episodes of both *Emmerdale* (48 episodes and one co-written) and *Coronation Street*, a combination he counted as an achievement few have matched[4](https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale) • [5](https://www.livingnorth.com/article/reece-dinsdale-talks-emmerdale-yorkshire-and-switching-roles). He also directed two episodes of the BBC One series *Pitching In*[7](https://entertainment-focus.com/2018/11/26/reece-dinsdale-interview/).
He has been candid that directing put his screen acting career on hold, saying he noticed it was "like falling off a cliff" for his acting work, even as he was learning about screen acting from the director's chair[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/).
## Stage work and Yorkshire
Dinsdale's relationship with Leeds Playhouse (formerly West Yorkshire Playhouse) dates to the theater's inaugural production at its Quarry Hill home: Jude Kelly cast him as Jack Rover in John O'Keeffe's *Wild Oats* in 1990, wanting a Yorkshire actor for the lead[8](https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/in-conversation-with-reece-dinsdale-our-ebenezer-scrooge/). Subsequent appearances there included *Playboy of the Western World*, *The Revengers Tragedy*, and *Visiting Mr Green*, and later roles as [Alan Bennett](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bennett) in *Untold Stories*, Richard III, and Halvard Solness in Zinnie Harris's updated Ibsen, *(The Fall of) The Master Builder*, for which a Guardian review noted his "scything ego and sharkish flirting" in making Solness an increasingly nasty piece of work[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/oct/06/fall-of-master-builder-review-west-yorkshire-playhouse-zinnie-harris-reece-dinsdale). In 2025 he played [Ebenezer Scrooge](https://www.edgepedia.org/ebenezer-scrooge) in his first festive show at the Playhouse[8](https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/in-conversation-with-reece-dinsdale-our-ebenezer-scrooge/).
He was made the theater's first Associate Artist in 2015[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/) and is a patron of Square Chapel in Halifax[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/). After more than 20 years in London, he and his wife, the actor Zara Turner, returned north after the birth of their daughter, a decision he acknowledged cost him professional momentum at the time because casting directors rarely saw him; he has since embraced the growth of Yorkshire's arts scene[6](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/).
In 2020 he began hosting online chats and later a stage talking tour, *Reece's Pieces*, in which an invited journalist or presenter interviews him about his career[10](https://bookmarksandstages.home.blog/2020/04/18/reeces-pieces-actor-reece-dinsdale-a-write-up-from-an-online-event-reece_dinsdale-virtualevent-onlineevent-actor/) • [5](https://www.livingnorth.com/article/reece-dinsdale-talks-emmerdale-yorkshire-and-switching-roles).
## References
1. [Reece Dinsdale, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227827/)
2. [Reece Dinsdale In Conversation, Folk Horror Revival](https://folkhorrorrevival.com/2019/09/19/reece-dinsdale-in-conversation/)
3. [Reece Dinsdale, Coronation Street Wiki](https://coronationstreet.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale)
4. [Reece Dinsdale, Emmerdale Wiki](https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Reece_Dinsdale)
5. [Reece Dinsdale talks Emmerdale, Yorkshire and Switching Roles, Living North (April 2022)](https://www.livingnorth.com/article/reece-dinsdale-talks-emmerdale-yorkshire-and-switching-roles)
6. [Interview: You used to be an actor, didn't you? - Reece Dinsdale, The Culture Vulture (17 May 2019)](https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/interview-you-used-to-be-an-actor-didnt-you-reece-dinsdale/)
7. [Reece Dinsdale interview, Entertainment Focus (26 November 2018)](https://entertainment-focus.com/2018/11/26/reece-dinsdale-interview/)
8. [In conversation with Reece Dinsdale, our Ebenezer Scrooge, Leeds Playhouse](https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/in-conversation-with-reece-dinsdale-our-ebenezer-scrooge/)
9. [(The Fall of) The Master Builder review, The Guardian (6 October 2017)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/oct/06/fall-of-master-builder-review-west-yorkshire-playhouse-zinnie-harris-reece-dinsdale)
10. [Reece's Pieces write-up, Bookmarks and Stages (18 April 2020)](https://bookmarksandstages.home.blog/2020/04/18/reeces-pieces-actor-reece-dinsdale-a-write-up-from-an-online-event-reece_dinsdale-virtualevent-onlineevent-actor/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Soap operas and continuing serials › British and Australasian soaps and characters › Coronation Street*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license