Full Monty's Dave to Fred Flintstone: Mark Addy is back

As a local lad, The Press has followed his career - and today we dip into our archives to share with you his story and lots of photos of Mark over the years.

It coincides with Mark reprising the role of 'fat' Dave Horsefall in The Full Monty, which told the story of six unemployed South Yorkshire steel workers who turn to stripping to make ends meet.

Mark, along with original stars of the movie, Robert Carlyle, Steve Huison and Lesley Sharp, reprise their roles for a new eight-part TV comedy, set 25 years after the action in the film, which will be broadcast on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 14.

They're back! The cast of The Full Monty 2023! (Image: supplied)

And 25 years ago, The Full Monty cast at the Golden Globe awards (Image: supplied)But turn back the clock to the late 1990s, did Mark think there would be a Full Monty sequel?

Speaking to The Press at the time, Mark - who grew up in Tang Hall and lived in Poppleton with his wife Kelly and children - said: "No. You should just let it stand and walk away. It was a great achievement in itself and I don't think there's anywhere further you can go with it."

Perhaps a wiser answer would have been "never say never."!

The Full Monty was Mark's first film. He had built up a solid career working in television, on shows such as The Bill, Band Of Gold and A Thin Blue Line.

As a pupil at Joseph Rowntree School, he could only have dreamed of the successful career that lay ahead.

In 1982, Addy, then 18, had been working as a stagehand at the Theatre Royal after quitting school midway through his A-level studies. He was bound for drama school - RADA.

There is a photo of him, from the Yorkshire Evening Press, hammer in hand, goatee beard on his chin, under the headline "Starstruck teenager is off to drama college".

Mark Addy aged 18 working at York Theatre Royal (Image: NQ)

No-one was expecting The Full Monty to be such a huge hit - least of all Mark.

The film made $250 million from a budget of only $3.5 million. It won a BAFTA and was nominated for several Academy Awards, winning Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.

In an interview with The Press at the time of the film's release, Mark wondered whether the film might springboard his career. He said: "I'd got myself known on TV, then this film comes along and blows things open! Now it's a question seeing how this does: it may generate interest in me, it may not, but obviously I have to keep myself reasonably open to offers."

Things must have felt surreal when he found himself - a lad from York - promoting The Full Monty on Barbara Walters' TV show in New York

Of course, more success was to follow, including playing Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas, his first lead in a big-budget Hollywood movie.

Mark Addy as Fred Flintstone, his first Hollywood lead (Image: Supplied)

He starred in a US sitcom, Still Standing, played Robert Baratheon in Game Of Thrones and Hercules in Atlantis.

In 2010, he took part in a moving series for the BBC which looked at his roots. In A Life Without Work, Mark discovered how his family had lived in dire poverty 100 years previously in Hungate.

In 2015, he was made Doctor of Letters by the York St John University.

And in 2021, he unveiled the sculpture dedicated to Gerald, the much-loved and missed York Minster cat.