Walter Charles Dance was born in Birmingham, England, in 1946, son of a parlour maid and a civil engineer who died when he was four. When the son was four that is, not the father. Dance junior dropped Walter from his name because he didn’t fancy having the initials WC. He was a nervous child and suffered from both a stammer and dyslexia. He left school at 16, found work as a window-dresser and a plumber’s mate before encountering, in a pub in Plymouth, a couple of retired actors who were to coach him in the business of being theatrical. Dance spent five years with The Royal Shakespeare Company before gaining fame here and abroad as Sergeant Guy Perron in the TV mini-series The Jewel in the Crown (1983). It was the first of many roles in which Charlie was to make his mark as a bit of posh. He had debuted in the small role of a gunman in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981), but made a striking impact as Meryl Streep’s patient diplomat husband in Plenty (1985). Other memorable roles include White Mischief, The Golden Child and Ali G Indahouse. Most often described as suave, debonair and a bit posh, Charlie is sauve and debonair. He’s not posh really. He was a plumber after all. He married his wife Jo in 1970 and they have two children, Becky and Oliver. They currently live in Somerset.