An English actor active in the theater since 1961, having made few theatrical movies, none of which particularly outstanding, with the
exception of
John Boorman's
Zardoz (1974) and
Nigel Cole's popular
Calendar Girls (2003), John Alderton has become famous thanks to British television. Appearing in approximately two hundred TV series episodes, TV movies or specials, he is best remembered as the teacher facing the rowdy students in the series
Please Sir! (1968), from 1968 to 1972, Thomas, the chauffeur, in
Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), between 1971 and 1975, and the narrator and sole voice artist for the English dub of
Fireman Sam (1987) from 1987 to 1994.