Robson Green is a name that evokes an odd mixture of rugged Northern charm and an almost unsettling versatility. To pigeonhole him is as futile as trying to nail jelly to a wall — one moment he’s a coal-faced Geordie with a twinkle in his eye, and the next he’s a man wrestling not just with criminals, but the demons of his own psyche. This career biography will navigate the tempestuous seas of Green’s life, with a particular eye on the critically acclaimed, genre-bending television series Touching Evil, a production that peeled back the glossy veneer of detective dramas to reveal something far darker, grittier, but ultimately human.
Robson Green’s origins are firmly entrenched in the hardworking, industrial history of North East England — specifically the town of Hexham, Northumberland, where he was born on the 18th of December, 1964. To say that Green’s upbringing planted him firmly in working-class soil would be an understatement of monumental proportions. His early years were wrapped in the kind of environment filled with coal mines, factory whistles, and a strong Northumbrian accent that defied mainstream television’s usual ladling out of the received pronunciation. Yet, it precisely this authenticity that would later become his acting’s secret sauce.
Initially, Green’s path was far from the glitz and glamour of the silver screen. Like many before him who would one day go on to strange acting accolades, he took a detour — a decidedly un-rock-and-roll apprenticeship at Newcastle’s Newcastle Arts Centre, then later the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He then reunited with his roots at the Live Theatre in Newcastle, a crucible for tough, socially conscious plays. It was here the young actor cut his teeth performing gritty, evocative roles that acknowledged reality’s harsher aspects. Crucially, this time shaped the serious actor beneath the often affable television persona that millions now adore.
In the early 1990s, Green’s television career began to gather momentum with the breakout role of Fusilier Dave Tucker in the ITV military drama Soldier Soldier. The show offered the nation a glimpse of the armed forces that was less swaggering heroics and more nuanced character study. Green’s performance, peppered with empathy and an ineffable “Je ne sais quoi” of Northern wit, made him a household name. Yet, the limits of such roles soon became evident: it was time to stretch beyond the campfire camaraderie and into the murky, shadow-laden world of psychological drama.
Enter Touching Evil, the 1997 Channel 5 television series that would become a crucible for Green’s burgeoning reputation as an actor willing to flirt with darkness. Adapted from Paul Abbott’s original concept — the same mastermind behind Shameless and State of Play — Touching Evil spun the familiar police procedural on its head. Gone were the neat, reassuring plots of good catching bad every thirty minutes. Instead, the series plunges headfirst into the liminal space where law enforcement officers battle not only external evil but internal vulnerabilities.
Green’s character, DS Dave Creegan, was a beautifully malignant blend of integrity, obsession, and fractured psyche. DS Creegan was no comic-book cop; he was a man coping with a traumatic past whilst chasing down some of the most grotesque criminal minds imaginable. The role demanded an actor who could convincingly oscillate between grit and fragile humanity — a role tailor-made for Green’s distinctive brand of emotional acuity.
The show’s tone was far from typical procedural fare. It leaned heavily on moody, atmospheric cinematography, evocative screenplay, and a brooding musical score that echoed the unspoken torment of its characters. Green’s performance centred on conveying the unvarnished psychological toll inflicted upon those who ‘touch evil’ in their professional lives. It was an uncomfortable yet enthralling watch, offering a rare glimpse of how gritty realism can transform genre television into something approaching art.
Critics were enthusiastic yet cautious. Some viewed Touching Evil as a glorified soap opera dressed up in police uniforms, while others hailed it as a pioneering work that prefigured the darker, character-driven dramas that would flourish in the 2000s. For Green, the show represented a professional watershed. It proved that he was more than just a casual charm machine with a Geordie accent — he was a serious actor with an appetite for challenging, complex roles.
Yet Green’s versatility was, and remains, a fertile ground of contradictions. Around the same period, he was also known as the affable host of Channel 4’s Sold! — a delightful, if niche, show about antique auctions. This side trip into presenter-landlets on the BBC’s Extreme Fishing with Robson Green series seemed bewilderingly dissonant with the dark, dour mood of Touching Evil, yet somehow, it worked. Green enjoys the space to be both rugged and relatable, torment and tonic.
Aside from the defining brushstrokes offered by Touching Evil, Green’s subsequent career has been a tapestry woven with a broad needle. His role in the BBC’s adaptation of Catherine Cookson’s The Secret showcased his ability to anchor period drama with subtlety and the kind of quiet dignity that made him a stalwart for British TV drama. Similarly, his enduring role alongside Vinnie Jones in Vera and other crime series further cemented his credentials as the Northern powerhouse who can both catch the bad guy and digest a fish rod with equal aplomb.
Green’s personal life, much like his career, is a mosaic of stability and spirited ups and downs. He married actress and television presenter Vanya Seager in 1992, a union that has weathered the storms of a demanding public life and domestic privacy with admirable resilience. They share two children, and Green remains refreshingly grounded, often speaking about his deep attachment to family life and the North East of England — the place that made him, and which he often makes homage to through his work.
More than just an actor, Green has also found success as a singer, lending his voice to the band Robson & Jerome in the 1990s, a commercial phenomenon that cannot be ignored even if one tries. Their cover versions of classic tracks topped the charts but also attracted no small degree of snobbery from music purists. Yet it underlined the basic charisma and everyman appeal that Green possesses — the enigmatic charm that can pivot from tough cop to pop star without missing a beat.
In summation, Robson Green’s career trajectory encapsulates the unique flavour of British television’s evolution over the last three decades: part gritty social realism, part pop-culture staple, and entirely unpredictable. His role in Touching Evil remains a standout, a beacon of what television can achieve when it refuses to mercilessly pander to comfort and instead dares to confront the shadows lurking beneath the surface. All the while, Green himself continues to straddle the boundary between the everyman and the extraordinary — a fascinating figure whose career warrants both sustained attention and a touch of bemused admiration.
Whether staring down the darkness as DS Dave Creegan or casting a line off the rocky coasts of the North East, Robson Green embodies an integrity of spirit and craft that is every bit as compelling as the roles he chooses. For those looking for an actor who can make the mundane feel momentous and the terrible touchable, he remains a singular presence on the British screen, irrepressibly Northern, and irrevocably real.